Steve Waugh has dismissed the notion that sportspersons knew when their time was up and said that he experienced a raging mental conflict in his final days wearing the Baggy Green cap.

"People say you'll wake up and you'll know when you want to retire. I don't think it happens like that," the former Australian captain said.

"Most people juggle with it. I spoke to one or two people when I was thinking about it and it is natural for your emotions to go up and down," Waugh was quoted as saying in 'The Age'.

"Some mornings you're going to wake up and think 'Geez, I love playing for Australia and I want to be here every day'.

"Other days you'll think 'Geez, I miss the kids and my form's not too good, am I really doing the right thing," he added.

Waugh, who holds the record for captain with most number of Test wins, saw his career come to an end much against his wish in 2003-04 at the close of Australia's home series against India.

Waugh, 39 then, felt he still had a few years' cricket left in him then but the Australian board was determined to blood youngsters.

Two years before that, the Australian board had stunned the cricket world by bringing down the curtains on Waugh's one-day career.

Waugh was part of the World Cup winning teams in 1987 and 1999 - as skipper on the second occasion, but his successor Ricky Ponting [Images] made history by leading the side to back-to-back triumphs in 2003 and earlier this year.

Waugh, in his motivational speech to the Australian football team at their Asian Cup training camp in Singapore, sympathised with Socceroos skipper Mark Viduka.

He said Viduka's vacillation over his retirement was "natural" and said he must be allowed to weigh up his future without being judged.

The Newcastle striker had decided to quit international football two weeks ago, only to make a late back flip and link up with the Socceroos' Asian Cup campaign.

While he will lead the side to the Asian Cup, he remains unsure whether he will continue playing for his country towards the 2010 World Cup.

Waugh spent three days with the Socceroos on an invite from coach Graham Arnold, a former Sydney grade cricket teammate.

He challenged the Socceroos to use the Asian Cup and upcoming World Cup campaign to push cricketers for the mantle of Australia's No.1 sporting team.

"That's a message I'll be telling this side. Get out there and take on the other sides - try to be the premier sporting side in Australia.

"The cricket guys are up there and they're obviously the number one at the moment.