Australia international cricket captain Michael Clarke has announced he is to retire from one-day international cricket following Sunday’s World Cup final with New Zealand from the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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With the eyes of the world’s cricketing media focused on his pre-match press conference in Melbourne, Clarke revealed he would be taking the field for the last time for his country in the 50-over format of the game.
Over the course of his illustrious career, ‘Pup’ has played 244 ODIs for his country and scored 7907 runs in the process, including hitting eight centuries.
Michael Clarke announces the final will be his last ODI for Australia pic.twitter.com/gsPX2Y26oz
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) March 28, 2015
Clarke had previously retired from Twenty20 cricket in 2011, with this latest announcement leaving him free to attempt to prolong his career in the Test match format.
Since breaking into the Australia setup in 2003, the New South Wales batsman has been a virtual ever-present for his country and took over captaincy of both Test and ODI formats from Ricky Ponting in 2011.
While he has been occasionally criticised in his homeland for percieved problems with his attitude, Clarke thrived upon the captaincy of his country to display some of the best form of his career immediately following his ascension to the role.
LISTEN as MClarke23 announces his retirement from ODI cricket. https://t.co/BB91OJQ5qA via audioBoom #AUSvNZ
— Cricket World Cup (@CRlCKETWORLDCUP) March 28, 2015
A close friend of former Australia batsman Philip Hughes, Clarke was also widely praised for his handling of the difficult aftermath of his colleague’s tragic death in late 2014, including giving a moving reading at the funeral service.
With Clarke stepping down from his ODI duties, fellow batsman and part-time spinner Steve Smith is now seen by many as the leading candidate to take the role moving forward.
The Australian side only learned of their captain’s decision on Saturday and will be doubtless be determined to send their skipper off on a high in Sunday’s final.
