Search
Close this search box.

A career of dichotomies

Despite a successful career littered with achievements, the public never warmed to Michael Clarke, writes Rudi Edsall.

There’s a saying among some cynical cricket fans in Australia, once a player gets a blue New South Wales cap, they’re also given a baggy green.

The implication of course is that it’s much easier for New South Wales players to make the national side.

This sentiment was in full effect when Michael Clarke was first catapulted into the test side for the 2004 tour of India. Fans of other states, frustrated at players like Brad Hodge being overlooked, rolled their eyes at another NSW tyro making up the middle order.

What critics may not have known was that Clarke had been working his entire life for that debut.

While his story may not have been as compelling as Ben Hilfenhaus’ bricklaying, Clarke had done the hard yards before reaching his test start.

Growing up, his father owned an indoor cricket centre in south-western Sydney, and young Clarke spent hours there, playing against whoever would bowl to him.

He credits the time spent in indoor nets with the nimble footwork to spin, that served him so well on that debut tour.

The fleet-footed 151 he made in the first test at Bangalore was crucial in Australia’s only series win in India in the last 45 years.

Upon approaching his debut ton, Clarke called for his baggy green cap despite the Indians continuing with their pace attack.

It was a gesture that showed great deference and respect to the history and culture of the Australian cricket team.

So it was ironic when John Buchanan recently suggested that the culture of the baggy green cap had “deteriorated” under Clarke’s captaincy.

Clarke’s commitment to the team and leadership potential was also questioned in 2010, when he left a New Zealand tour to attend to his private life and a messy breakup with socialite Lara Bingle.

Clarke responded to doubts about his suitability by returning to NZ for the test series and immediately peeling off an excellent century.

While the Bingle break-up was high profile, Clarke’s most tumultuous relationship was with the public. He was booed by fans at the Gabba in 2011.

Clarke was a stroke maker rather than a battering ram, the type of player that provided the flair while the real stars played the bulwark role.

Australian cricket was used to its heroes being gruff and overtly masculine, such as Ricky Ponting’s hairy-armed intensity, Steve Waugh’s flint hard stare and “mental disintegration”, and Allan Border openly threatening to send his own players home on the field.

Clarke didn’t fit this mould, and never wanted to.

He is the first Generation Y captain Australia has ever had, and he acted like it. He was brash and attacking in his cricket, sometimes to a fault.

Teams under his yoke occasionally found themselves in trouble by cranking up the bravado when a more circumspect approach was needed, most notably at Cape Town in 2011 and Trent Bridge in 2015.

From a cricket point of view, he was actually a purist’s delight.

Clarke played proper cricket shots, and the 329* he made against India at the SCG with a sponsor-less bat may be the closest thing fans will see to a Victor Trumper innings in their lifetime. Another innings that showed the disconnect between the perception of man and player was his incredibly gutsy 161* against South Africa at Cape Town in 2014.

Clarke was subjected to an early barrage of bouncers from South African fast bowler, Morne Morkel, including an early one that broke his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth, beared the pain and went about making a crucial ton that was influential in Australia winning the series.

It was an incredibly substantial knock from a man that was often criticised as being style over substance. It was also benchmark in physical toughness for Clarke, whose degenerative back injury meant even getting out of bed was an exercise in physical pain.

However, neither Clarke’s ars in cricket magnum opus against India nor his bloody-minded show of strength against South Africa were his defining moment as a cricketer or captain.

Instead, that came late in November last year.

Clarke’s teammate and close friend, Phil Hughes, was hit in the neck by a bouncer playing in the Sheffield Shield. He collapsed onto the SCG turf, and never regained consciousness.

Clarke rushed to Hughes’ side and stayed there for two days. Clarke represented Hughes’s family by reading the statement to the media after his life support had been turned off.

Clarke was clearly devastated, but handled himself exceptionally well, speaking through bloodshot eyes and an ashen face.

He allowed the public to channel their own grief through him, like a long-term mayor trying to make sense of a natural disaster that has razed his constituency.

Despite the mountain of runs and elastic captaincy, it was at this point that the Australian public best connected with Clarke, as someone struggling to say goodbye to his mate.

For a man who has enjoyed many highs as a cricketer, it took the lowest point of his career for the public to embrace him.

 

Rudi EdsallRudi Edsall is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism (Sport) student studying at La Trobe University, and a current staff writer at upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @RudiEdsall.

Related Articles

Editor's Picks