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Manchester - As he prepares for his final ever ODI for South Africa on Saturday, Imran Tahir does so as a man who will leave as a Proteas great.
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If you were to go back to 1991 in an effort to assemble an all-time best Proteas XI in ODI cricket, there is simply nobody who would be able to challenge Tahir for the specialist spinner's spot.
He is, and has been for a long time, a cut above the rest.
Tahir's 172 wickets in 106 ODIs at a superb average of 24.63 tell their own story of exactly how much he will be missed once the 2019 World Cup ends and South Africa start plotting their way forward, but the 40-year-old is about so much more than that.
Given an international cricket lifeline by the Proteas at the 2011 World Cup, the Lahore-born Tahir has not looked back.
Over the years, the passion with which Tahir has represented his country has become a hallmark of his game, with animated wicket celebrations that include sprints towards the boundary and pumping the Proteas crest on his chest a familiar sight.
Tahir, who announced his plans for retirement well before the start of the World Cup, acknowledged on Thursday ahead of Saturday's clash against Australia in Manchester that he was starting to feel emotional at the thought of stepping away from ODI cricket.
Playing at the highest level is all he has ever wanted to do, and Tahir's gratitude towards South Africa for giving him that opportunity manifests every time he earns an international cap.
Tahir will still be available for South Africa in T20 cricket and he desperately wants to play at next year's T20 World Cup in Australia, but now is the time for him to start looking back on all he has achieved in the 50-over format.
There will be no World Cup fairy-tale given the Proteas' dismal showing at the 2019 showpiece, but Tahir leaves satisfied by some incredibly fond memories he has made along the way.
The best of the bunch came off the field in 2016.
The Proteas had just beaten Australia 5-0 in an ODI series at home - the same series that saw David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo unite for a famous 107-run partnership for the seventh wicket in chasing down 372 runs for victory in the 3rd ODI in Durban.
When they completed the whitewash, it was the first time that any side in international cricket had beaten Australia 5-0 in an ODI series.
In the aftermath of that success, Tahir recalls what he considers one of the best moments of his life as he was stopped by fans at Gateway shopping centre in Durban.
During that experience, Tahir says he began to understand just how much cricket meant to South Africans.
"I saw the rainbow nation. It was an amazing feeling," he said.
"I saw black people, white people, coloured people, Indian people, Muslim people … they all just came from nowhere ... it was very emotional for me standing there with everyone telling me they were proud of me.
"It made me feel very special and I understood that, whatever we do, we don't realise what we are doing for people.
"To see the love coming back from people was unbelievable and probably the best moment of my life.
"I have a lot of respect for South Africa and its people and that is the only thing that has kept me going up until now. I'm just really grateful to everybody."
It was a recollection that, for the umpteenth time, showed how seriously Tahir has taken the responsibility of representing South Africa.
It may not have ended the way he and the rest of the country would have liked, but on Saturday the nation will get the chance to say one last goodbye.
@LloydBurnard is in England covering the 2019 Cricket World Cup for Sport24 ...
