Michael Clarke at times was a bit of an Australian public punching bag. Sometimes it was due to tattoos, sometimes due to where he lived, and sometimes because his name was Michael Clarke.
In retirement he did two very noble things.
The first one was giving his successor, Steve Smith, the easiest possible start to his captaincy career. An overseas tour to Bangladesh, as far as overseas tours go, is on the easy side. Thought the tour didn’t go ahead.
The home series against New Zealand, who are good club cricket team with two or three very good players, followed by the West Indies, who gave up caring about Test cricket long ago, is about as easy as it gets for Smith.
Clarke could have taken the easy way out. He could have found form on good Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide wickets and cashed in against the West Indies bowlers, who no longer have surnames that read Marshall, Walsh, Ambrose or Garner.
The second noble thing Clarke did was taking responsibility for his, and his team’s results. Clarke’s form was terrible in England, and it was clear it affected him. Losing the series within four Tests, including the debacle of being rolled for 60 with the series on the line, also didn’t sit well with Clarke.
Clarke drew the line there and did the noble thing and put his hand up. Not the most common thing among modern day sportspeople.
Clarke had an excellent career. He left as a losing Ashes captain, but can hold his head up high knowing his final decisions as a Test cricketer were completely unselfish.
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