There remains one more match for Michael Clarke to script some semblance of a fairytale finish to a career which has seemed destined for such heroism since he first slipped on the Baggy Green in 2004. But with the Ashes lost, and another series defeat in England, there is a prevailing sense of disappointment at how his international career has concluded.
Thankfully, time will ensure we remember him not for the last 12 months in which he’s struggled on manfully, but for the fantastic batsman he has been. However, should he not score an innings of significance at The Oval, it will be fitting, in trying to make sense of his career, that his last Test century was the one he made in Adelaide against India in December.
Extremely tough day. England – All class & too good. To all the players I have played with & against, thank you! Memories will last forever
— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) August 8, 2015
This game owes me nothing, I owe it everything! Thank you to all of the people who have supported me through good and bad times.
— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) August 8, 2015
Plagued by a persistent back injury, a problem that has punctuated much of his latter days, each shot was delivered in extreme pain and discomfort. It was a very un-Clarke innings. Or at least one that went against what we are supposed to think about him.
The supposed flash David Beckham-wannabe has always been at odds at what an Australian captain should be. His predecessors and the skippers he grew up watching or playing under – Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Allan Border – were hard and stoic men. Dare it be said, ‘proper Aussies’.
Clarke was none of these. At least the stereotype of him wasn’t. There were the celebrity girlfriends, the Bondi lifestyle and the fashion shoots. As one Australian player said during the early years of his career: “He wants to be a rock star.” Then there was the infamous fall out with Simon Katich in 2009 which has left a cloud over his captaincy that he was never ‘one of the lads’.
He has been a polarising figure but what was thought of Clarke, wasn’t necessarily the truth. Two of his closest friends in the Australian set-up – Brad Haddin and Shane Warne – are as close to the image of what an Australian cricketer should be as you can get.
Clarke, at his finest, was among the world’s very best batsmen and for a time in the last five years certainly was out on his own. As a captain he was a sharp tactician who, for better or worse, left many stumped over his field positions.
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He has also played on through a raft of injuries. His detractors would perhaps say it was for personal glory but then Clarke has risked his long-term health each time he has stepped on to the field. Leading from the front as he has always strived to do.
He loved Australia and he loved being Australian cricket captain. His decision to retire, while appearing inevitable, due to his and the team’s decline in form, would have hurt more than any of the physical hardship he has gone through.
It is clear there are elements within Cricket Australia who were never fully comfortable with Clarke at the helm, especially with the rise of Steve Smith. All captains go through such situations – just ask MS Dhoni or Alastair Cook – but it’s a challenge he’s combated, albeit not directly with the bat, and still emerged with dignity.
His words during the Phillip Hughes tragedy saw him elevated to statesmanlike status, once again revealing qualities in the man never before considered.
He won’t ever be regarded as a Border, a Ponting or a Waugh, he was an imperfect version of the Baggy Green captain archetype – the golden boy who discovered his inner Aussie grit.
