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It may have escaped notice in Australia but earlier this week Michael Clarke was named by Wisden as the ‘leading cricketer in the world’.
While appreciating that the small yellow tome, which incidentally celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, is more of an English institution, it does cover the game on a global scale and isn’t anywhere near as insular as some would believe.
Having picked up a ‘Cricketer of the Year’ prize in 2010, mainly for his exploits in the 2009 Ashes series, Clarke has become just the tenth recipient of a title that has also gone to his countrymen Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne
And their judgement on the standing on Clarke is, although a convincing case could be made for a couple of others, about right.
Hashim Amla and Alastair Cook would have their supporters and Dale Steyn at a push but taking the wider picture into account, Clarke justifiably comes out on top.
Greg Baum does a good job on the Cricinfo website of contextualising Clarke’s position in the game, both from a playing perspective and that of his role as Australian captain and about how his career since 2004 has peaked, troughed then peaked again.
There is also some insight into how he is perceived by the Australian public, a character who seemingly falls into the Marmite category (similar to Vegemite I think) of either being adored or reviled.
Some of the fallout from the recent homework nonsense in India had Clarke down as one of the villains of the piece, the ammunition being provided for those who, if not doubting his ability with bat in hand, do exactly that when his leadership is up for discussion.
Being in no real position to comment on his man-management abilities, a lack of knowledge sees to that, I admire the way he conducts affairs on the field, in particular an unwillingness to let the contest drift.
But it is his batting that I can empathise with and while Wisden have used all factors to arrive at their decision, purely on a performance basis Clarke, over the past 12 months or so, is at the top of the tree.
Having only seen Clarke play a couple of times in the flesh, I won’t go down the ‘I knew he was destined for greatness’ line that is peddled far too often for no apparent reason, but it was obvious from close quarters that he could really play.
A National League match in 2004, a few months before he made his Test bow, between Lancashire and Hampshire at Old Trafford provided a glimpse of the Sydneysider who had arrived with a burgeoning reputation.
And while the half-century he made probably won’t make his career highlights, it showed off a player who knew what he was doing.
Golfers often talk of peers being a good ball-striker and this is what I can recall about Clarke, who hit, and timed, the ball particularly well, and surprisingly hard, with little apparent effort which is a talent few possess.
Fast forward to the present and if there has been a better innings in the past year or so than his double-hundred against South Africa in Brisbane then I haven’t seen it and if there is a more accomplished player of spin, and I know someone who rates him highly in this regard, in the game then good on him.
Weaknesses exist with fast, short-pitched bowling causing some discomfort, however, this rarely detracts from the overall output which has been nothing short of phenomenal since he succeeded Ponting.
Clarke is the only current Australian player who would walk into any team in the world, a sure sign of where he is at, with the Australian team’s and his individual fortunes are so intrinsically linked, and herein lies the rub, that it isn’t stretching things too far to suggest that a prolonged stretch of failure is something the team he controls simply can’t absorb.