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Michael Clarke ignored a golden opportunity yesterday to show he’s worthy of the second most important job in the country by not saluting Supermum Sarah Elliott on her maiden Test ton in the women’s Ashes series.
He should have called a media conference to publicly pay tribute to Sarah, who fed her baby son Sam in the intervals on her way to three figures.
What a magnificent success story after the abysmal performance of the men at Chester-le-Street.
That Test finished in four days, and the next game, a two-dayer at Northampton, doesn’t start until Saturday.
Clarke could have gone a major step further than the salute, by telling his troops to “pack up, we’re heading to Wormsley in Buckinghamshire to support the women.”
The PR and goodwill generated by the double gesture would have been priceless.
The negative nay-sayers would bleat the men should stay in the nets and keep practicing. The proof is in the pudding: nets haven’t kept the baggy greens in the series, down three-zip with one to go.
So instead of moping around the team hotel feeling sorry for themselves, and hopefully ashamed of how they folded at Chester-le-Street, a trip from the north of England to the outskirts of Greater London would have been far more meaningful.
And the women’s team would be chuffed that the baggy greens thought that much of them as to break with tradition.
Sadly, few others give a damn about Australia’s women cricketers, except the brilliant all-rounder Elyse Perry, a dual international with football as well.
In fact, most Australians don’t give a damn about women’s sport in general, and I’ve always found that galling.
The swimmers are an exception, so too golfer Karrie Webb during her stellar career, and to a lesser extent tennis player Sam Stosur, who either wins tournaments or is beaten in the early rounds but still gets media coverage nonetheless.
Hurdler Sally Pearson, a World and Olympic champion, finds it hard to get sponsors – and she is a superb athlete with a bulging CV.
But in the main, women’s sport in buried near the comics or in the details pages.
So full marks to yesterday’s Daily Telegraph for featuring Sarah Elliott on the top of the front page, spilling into page two.
The icing on the cake would have been Michael Clarke taking time out to salute Sarah, at 31 the oldest member of the team.
And for the team to show up at Wormsley in support to show they don’t always just think of themselves … a golden opportunity lost.