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.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Katich lead multiple teams with success. Steve Waugh, who knew a little about leading, wanted katich as captain. Don't be too surprised if one day he comes back as Aussie coach. Clark will take his seat were he has always belonged, showbiz!
JoM
Roar Rookie
Oh please. So you wanted a guy made captain who assaults another player when he is drunk. Great role model there.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
And destroyed Watson, Katich, and played part in getting rid of Symonds. Clark a great batsman and on field tactician, but we should have listened to Haydos and not given him the captaincy. Katich should have lead the team after Punter, we could have avoided few embarrassing episodes.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Easy Guru, we all now Rookie is a Rookie. What this rookie also needs to learn is some Gurus don't take criticism like a Guru. Now back to the subject, anyone who has been following cricket will tell you Clark was anything but selfless. He retired because he knew he would be pushed if he did not.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Is that the Warner who worshipped the bloke? Guarantee he'd have nothing but the highest praise for the captain he debuted under and guided his career to the top of the world.
JoM
Roar Rookie
Maybe, but both of those two know they had no bigger supporter in that team than Clarke. It was Clarke that came out and said a couple of years ago that Warner could be the next captain because he had leadership ability and everyone laughed at that. It was also Clarke who publicly slammed our esteemed selectors for dropping Smith not that long ago, can't remember who they dropped him for but it didn't work.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Clarke was an interesting character. I feel like he was just a socially awkward person who didn't really get the team mentality. He was a fierce competitor and a brilliant player (who I think deserved to average over 50), but he was not a team man. I don't think he every understood the value of it. Even the infamous 'get ready for a broken ------- arm' incident reeks of someone sticking up for another because they knew they should, not because they felt comfortable doing it.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Of course he wouldn't have been dropped, haha. He was the captain.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
I mentioned bios because of Ponting himself stated he was a bit perplexed by Clarke.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Khawaja didnt help by not scoring runs in his first 10 tests. Good technique and has done well against medium pacers on flat wickets in Brisbane and NZ. Needs to perform in tough conditions now. Should be reaching his peak over the next 4 years.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Cricket books are boring. They all play it safe. Mark Taylors book was the worst book ive ever read. Ricky Ponting's diarys are great door stoppers.
My2cents
Guest
the biggest thing Clarke did to help Steve smith was to keep khawaja out of the side. If not for clarkes interference he would probably be test captain right now
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Clarke was a divisive captain. Be interesting to see the bios of Warner and Smith about their time under Clarke.
Ram C. Khanal
Roar Rookie
He would have been dropped anyway. Nice try though.