The Michael Clarke conundrum… solved?

Prior to this months second cricket test match between Australia and India, I was firmly in the anti-Michael Clarke camp. While I didn’t doubt his enthusiasm for the job of captaining the Australian cricket team, I did doubt his ability to captain the Australian cricket team. Like many of his critics, I felt that he was too focused on flashy cars and flashier girlfriends. For me, Michael Clarke just wasn’t one of those players you could depend on to tough it out when the going got tough.

However, after witnessing not only his magnificent record breaking innings of 329 not out in the second test match between Australia and India last week, I am forced to eat large servings of humble pie. After a successful opening day with the ball had lurched ominously towards disaster with the loss of three early (late) wickets, Clarke dug in valiantly alongside his much maligned former skipper Ricky Ponting to rescue not only the innings, but quite possibly his standing in the eyes of the Australian public.

Clarke showed that he could roll his sleeves up, could bat all day, could dominate one of the better bowling attacks in world cricket. But most importantly, he showed that he could lead the team, that he could inspire the team. That he could be equally gracious and humble in victory and unselfish in a game where personal statistics are so often prized by many players. Only the most ardent Clarke haters would have begrudged him for batting on an extra hour or two longer to chase down Matthew Hayden’s Australian record and Brian Lara’s World Record scores of 380 and 400 respectively.

But while he has earned much praise for his innings, and rightly so, it is the other things, the little things surrounding the innings that have forced me to rethink my perceptions of Clarke. While the cynics have (incorrectly) pointed out that Clarke was pointing out to potential sponsors that his now record breaking bat was sponsor-less, he was in-fact pointing to the McGrath Foundation stickers adorning the back of his bat, in tribute to the life and work of the late Jane McGrath for whom day 3 at the test was honoring. Hardly the mark of a selfish show pony. That he allowed Mike Hussey to reach a personal milestone while unselfishly forgoing his own was another example of team and team mates before himself.

Further testimony to his good character was the emotion that he showed his predecessor Ricky Ponting when the former skipper bought up his first century in two years. The embrace he gave Ponting showed everyone at the ground that Ricky’s hundred meant as much to him as it did to Ponting. While Australians by and large love to chop down tall poppies, Clarke went a long way to showing that he is still that cricket loving kid from the western suburbs of Sydney. He just happens to be living the life that we all wish we could be living and he shouldn’t be crucified for that.

As to the current and long term problems facing Australian cricket, and international cricket at large, well, that is for another time…