Australia’s new Test captain Michael Clarke casts a genial and polite image, yet he polarizes opinion among the country’s cricket followers.
Clarke, 29, has stepped into the hot seat, replacing injured skipper Ricky Ponting for tomorrow’s final Ashes Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Ashes are gone, but Australia have the motivation of drawing the series with England if they can regroup after their massive loss in the fourth Test in Melbourne and win in Sydney.
Photo: Reuters
Clarke now has the responsibility of partly restoring Australia’s battered prestige if he can raise the troops for one last big effort to deprive Andrew Strauss’ team of the series victory they have richly deserved, but Clarke, known as “Pup” from his early days in Tests, generates animosity and praise within the Australian cricket community and it is not always obvious why.
On the day Clarke was announced as captain this week, a newspaper poll showed only 8 percent of respondents favored the appointment.
In another newspaper poll before the series, 74 percent said they did not want vice captain Clarke to become Australia’s next Test captain.
“I think it’s part and parcel of what we do now,” Clarke said.
“As a professional cricketer these days you spend a lot of the time in the media. I’ve copped a lot of criticism throughout my whole career, it’s no different now,” he said.
The reasons for the animosity are not clear. He is a clean when it comes to off-field behavior, and has been courteous and straightforward in his dealings with the media.
Clarke said recently in a magazine article: “You wish everybody liked you, but not everyone’s going to.”
“I don’t know and will never find out what it is that made people criticize me,” he said. “I only have to stay true to myself and true to how my parents brought me up. I know I’m not trying to be anyone other than myself.”
Clarke may be paying for his perceived glamorous lifestyle and his previous high-profile relationship with bikini model Lara Bingle.
He left a tour of New Zealand early last year to settle a very public break-up with Bingle, which generated front page headlines at the time.
After putting his affairs in order, Clarke returned to New Zealand and made his highest Test score of 168 in the first Test in Wellington.
There was also an incident following Australia’s win over South Africa three years ago in Sydney when he passed on his duty as vice captain of leading the team song so he could go on a date with Bingle.
That led to a confrontation with teammate Simon Katich, who reportedly grabbed Clarke by the throat, before teammates pulled them apart and Clarke stormed off.
Brad Haddin, vice captain for the coming Test in Sydney, believes Clarke will cope with the extra scrutiny.
“The reaction from the public changes week to week — you are one good innings away or sometimes one good cover drive away from the support being with you,” Haddin said. “You just have to present yourself and do all the work you possibly can to be the best cricketer you possibly can. Michael is a very strong character, so things will be OK.”
Clarke has also struggled in this Ashes series at No. 4 in the batting order with 148 runs in seven innings for an average of 21.14.
Cricket Australia takes little heed of the newspaper polls, saying its own research shows Clarke is enormously popular and has become an important marketing tool for a sport struggling to retain interest among young people.
“He speaks their language,” Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said. “He will be Australia’s first Gen-Y Test captain. In terms of leadership, we go into Sydney with absolute confidence.”
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS