Michael John Clarke (born 2 April 1981) is an Australian former cricketer. He was captain of the Australian cricket team in both Test and One Day International (ODI) between 2011 and 2015, leading Australia to victory in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. He also served as captain of the Twenty20 International (T20I) team between 2007 and 2010. With his time representing Australia, Clarke won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the 2015 Cricket World Cup which he was the winning captain, and the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
Nicknamed "Pup", Clarke was a right-handed middle-order batsman, an occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler and also a slip catcher. He represented New South Wales at a domestic level.
Clarke retired from all forms of cricket after the final Test of the 2015 Ashes series.
Early life and career Clarke was born and raised in Liverpool, New South Wales. He attended Marsden Road Public School and cultivated his batting skills at his father's indoor cricket centre in Liverpool after school. Despite being a left handed person who writes and bowls with his left hand, Clarke trained to bat right handed . His junior club was the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club.
When Clarke was 17, scans revealed that he had three degenerative discs in his lower back, a condition that would restrict his back movement through his career. Clarke underwent core strengthening exercises to ease this condition.
Clarke made his first-class debut for New South Wales as a seventeen-year-old in a game against the touring Indian team at the Sydney Cricket Ground in December 1999. He was an AIS Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1999–2000. In 2002, Clarke played for Ramsbottom Cricket Club in English club cricket. He became the first player to hit a double century in the history of the Lancashire League.
International career Early years Clarke made his One Day International debut in January 2003 against England at Adelaide Oval.
Clarke made his Test debut at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in October 2004, in the first Test match of Australia's 2004 tour of India. In his first innings, Clarke batted with good footwork against India's bowlers. He was not confident that he could read India's spin bowler Anil Kumble's deliveries, so he moved to the pitch of the ball to eliminate the spin. He scored 151 runs and was named the player of the match in Australia's win. He continued to play well for the rest of the tour. Despite not being considered a strong bowler, he bowled in fourth Test match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and took six wickets for nine runs. This remained the best bowling performance of his Test career until he retired.
The Australian team returned home in November 2004 and Clarke played his first home Test match against New Zealand at The Gabba in Brisbane. He scored another century, finishing with 141 runs, and was again named player of the match. After his early success in the team, Clarke began to struggle and didn't score another century in the following six Test series he played. His struggles began in the 2005 Ashes series in England. He played a strong innings in the 1st Test match at Lord's in July 2005, reaching 91 quickly. England responded with defensive bowling tactics to slow him down, and Clarke tried to improvise with aggressive shots and was dismissed. Clarke's form dropped after this innings, and he struggled to score runs for the rest of the year. He stayed in the team until November 2005, during Australia's series against the West Indies. In the first Test match at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Clarke was dismissed for 5 runs while playing a loose stroke in the first innings, and he did not bat in the second innings. He was dropped from the team following this match.
Return to international cricket After being dropped from the national team at the end of 2005, Clarke focused on changing his batting technique to tighten his defence and play with a straighter bat. He performed well in Australian domestic cricket and returned to the national team in 2006. His initial return came in Australia's first ever tour of Bangladesh in April 2006, but after this tour he was dropped again. He next returned to the team for the 2006–07 Ashes series when Shane Watson was injured and unable to play. He scored centuries in back-to-back matches in the second and third Tests at Adelaide Oval and the WACA which would cement his place in the team.
Clarke then helped Australia retain the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies where they did not lose a game. After Damien Martyn's retirement he was elevated to number five in the batting line up. He had a superb tournament making four 50s including a 92 and a 93* against the Netherlands and South Africa. He also made an unbeaten 60 against South Africa in the semi-final to guide Australia into the final at Barbados, against Sri Lanka. He was named as 12th man in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo for the 2007 World Cup.
Clarke's results in international matches MatchesWonLostDrawnTiedNo resultTest 1156432190-ODI 24516764-113T20I 341814–11Last Updated:23 August 2015
Struggle in form Clarke faced only four balls for three runs in the ICC World Twenty20, when Australia were knocked out by India in the semi-final. Two weeks later he made 130 against India in the first of a seven-match ODI series. He did not maintain that form in the remaining 6 matches mustering up just one fifty. He opened the batting in the final two games after a hip injury ruled out Matthew Hayden and he made two golden ducks. In the tour-ending Twenty20 match Clarke dropped back down the order with the return of Hayden, and scored 25 not out in a heavy defeat.
On 9 November 2007, Clarke notched up his fifth Test century against Sri Lanka in a two Test series. Clarke shared a 245 run partnership with Mike Hussey at the Gabba in Brisbane, Hussey departed on 133 but Clarke went on and had a partnership with Symonds who made 53*, the pair were unbeaten when Ricky Ponting declared the innings, Clarke top scoring with 145 not out.
On 6 January 2008, Clarke dismissed Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh and Ishant Sharma in the second last over of the day, with just six minutes remaining, to claim the final three wickets and win the Test match for Australia (at one stage he was on a hat trick, dismissing Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh on consecutive deliveries). His innings figures were 3 for 5 in 1.5 overs. Australian captain Ricky Ponting had declared that morning, setting India a total of 333 to chase and allowing Australia arguably too little time to bowl out the visitors. Clarke's wickets ensured that Australia retained the Border–Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 and kept their world record equalling 16 match win streak alive.
Vice captaincy
After the retirement of Adam Gilchrist, in April 2008 Clarke was named vice-captain of the Australian team. Clarke missed the start of Australia's 2008 tour of the West Indies following the death of Bingle's father, meaning Hussey took over as vice-captain for the start of the tour. Soon after Clarke joined up with the squad, he scored a century in the second Test in Antigua, going on to captain the team in the final two One Day Internationals, both of which were won, in the absence through injury of Ponting.
He was named man of the series in the two-Test series against New Zealand in Australia with scores of 110, 98 and 10, as well as being the top run-scorer in the three-Test series against South Africa in Australia. Clarke won the 2009 Allan Border Medal in a tie with Ricky Ponting both scoring 41 points, and was named Test Cricketer of the Year. For his performances in 2009, he was named in the World Test XI by the ICC.
Captaincy On 5 December 2007, Cricket Australia named Clarke as captain of Australia for their one-off Twenty20 game against New Zealand in Perth, after deciding to rest Ponting and Hayden.
Michael Clarke's record as captain MatchesWonLostDrawnTiedNo resultWin %Test 47241670–51.06%ODI 745021––367.57%T20I 18124–1166.67%
Clarke was named as captain of Australia's Twenty20 team in October 2009, taking over from Ricky Ponting, who retired from Twenty20 International cricket to prolong his career. In January 2011, Clarke was named as stand-in captain for the fifth Test of the 2010–11 Ashes Series at the SCG, replacing the injured Ricky Ponting. He announced his retirement from Twenty20 International cricket on 7 January 2011, to concentrate on the longer forms of the game. When Ponting stood down from the captaincy of the Australian Test and ODI teams after the 2011 World Cup, Clarke was appointed as his permanent replacement in both roles.
His knock of 151 against South Africa at Cape Town was nominated to be one of the best Test batting performance of the year 2011 by ESPNcricinfo.
In January 2012, in the second Test of Australia's home series against India and after a string of Test centuries since becoming captain, Clarke became the first Australian batsman since Matthew Hayden in 2003 to score a triple hundred. He joined with Ricky Ponting (134) in a partnership of 288, then added 334 with Michael Hussey (150*) before declaring on 329*, having started his innings with the score at 37/3.India tour of Australia, 2nd Test: Australia v India at Sydney, 3–6 Jan 2012. ESPNcricinfo. (6 January 2012). Retrieved 27 May 2018. This match against India was the 100th Test to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Clarke's score was both the highest ever made in an Australia-India Test (surpassing V. V. S. Laxman's 281 from the 2000/01 season) and the highest ever achieved at the ground. The ground high score record had been held for more than a century by Englishman Reg "Tip" Foster's 287 scored in the 1903/04 season. Clarke led Australia to a 4–0 win and was named the player of the series, having scored 626 runs at an average of 125.20. His knock was nominated to be one of the best Test batting performance of the year by ESPNcricinfo. He joined his triple century in Sydney with a double-century (210) in the first innings of the fourth Test in Adelaide. His 386-run partnership with Ponting (who scored 221) was the fourth-highest in Australian Test history. Following the Frank Worrell Trophy 2012, Ian Chappell said Clarke "is quickly establishing a well-deserved reputation for brave and aggressive captaincy. His entertaining approach is based on one premise: trying to win the match from the opening delivery. This should be the aim of all international captains, but sadly it isn't."
On 22 November 2012, Clarke scored a double century against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval.
Three weeks before the 2013 Ashes series, Clarke requested to stand down from his role as a selector, which also coincided with the sacking of coach Mickey Arthur and the naming of Darren Lehmann as his successor. After losing the 2013 Ashes in England, Clarke led Australia to a 5–0 victory in the 2013–14 Ashes series. Australia later gained the No. 1 Test ranking from South Africa after a long span of 4 years and 9 months (from August 2009 to April 2014), when Australia defeated South Africa 2–1 in a 3 match Test series, during Australia's tour of South Africa in 2014.