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Michael Clarke at the end of the first day of the the Australia vs Pakistan, third test match at Bellerive Oval, Tasmania, Jan 14th, 2010. AAP image/Richard Jupe.
It has now been confirmed that Michael Clarke left the tour of New Zealand to return home and comfort his fiancée, Lara Bingle, who is involved in the nude photo scandal engulfing the press. But the question must be asked: was this an appropriate decision from a player earmarked as the next Test captain?
Yes, Bingle has undoubtedly suffered from an unacceptable invasion of her privacy following the release of the photos – this much we cannot deny.
However, and I argue this point for the sake of the debate surrounding Clarke’s future as captain, people who chase fame so fervently, seek publicity through their personal lives and rely so heavily on the tabloid media to fuel their careers (Bingle has allegedly pocketed a whopping $200,000 for an interview and photo shoot with Woman’s Day magazine!) must expect these types of scandals and media interest when they are sullied in such a way.
Clarke, meanwhile, has been happy to ride the celebrity wave together with Bingle, appearing in saucy advertising campaigns and on red carpets. They have built an image around their relationship – the Posh and Becks of Australia (shudder).
We cannot know the state of mind Bingle is currently in (although she was well enough to flip the media the bird yesterday, the same media she is dependent upon for a career), but was it acceptable for Clarke to have gone running?
This wasn’t a family bereavement. This wasn’t a life-threatening crisis. This wasn’t a matter of huge urgency, as far as we can tell.
This was just a sorry saga involving irresponsible and immature adults, celebrity-hungry individuals with more money than tact and a media who turn such banality into stories we are meant to care about.
Yet Clarke, on the eve of a one-day international in the hotly contested Chappell-Hadlee series, left so quickly it has emerged that teammates didn’t even know he had gone.
These are the teammates who Clarke will captain in Tests – as seemed inevitable before his abandoning them – lead on the park, try to inspire and set an example for.
Captaincy is about commitment, sacrifice and example.
Clarke showed none of those qualities in leaving the team for these reasons, and we must ask if this is the type of player and if this is the type of image we really want from the next Australian Test captain?
Clarke faces a choice in the coming days: either return to New Zealand in time for the Test series, while still supporting his partner in her time of need, and reevaluating the ‘celebrity’ role he has so effortlessly assumed or stay in Australia and accept that his future as Test captain should be questioned if he continues to make such decisions.
The celebrity path inevitably involves more soap operas and trashy scandals, and such disruptions and sideshows don’t gel with the added responsibilities, expectations and pressures of Test captaincy.
Clarke’s future as a possible Test captain should be at stake in the coming weeks.