Michael Clarke Captaincy

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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, where he scored a double century—though he was not the first to achieve this feat in the Lancashire League, as David Byas had done so in 1994.

In Their Own Story

The journey to captaincy began when Clarke was named stand-in for the fifth Test of the 2010–11 Ashes Series at the SCG due to Ricky Ponting's injury. Following that, in January 2011, he announced his retirement from Twenty20 International cricket to focus on longer formats. When Ponting officially stood down as captain after the 2011 World Cup, Clarke took over permanently for both Test and ODI roles. His leadership was tested early with a string of centuries since becoming skipper, including a double-century (210) in Adelaide that followed his Sydney triple century. Despite facing form struggles earlier in his career, such as being dropped after the 2005 Ashes and struggling against India's spinners, Clarke returned to cement his place with back-to-back centuries in the 2006–07 Ashes. He retired from all cricket after the final Test of the 2015 Ashes series.

Reader's Guide

Clarke made his One Day International debut in January 2003 against England at Adelaide Oval. He made his Test debut at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in October 2004, scoring 151 runs and being named player of the match. In the fourth Test at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai he took six wickets for nine runs, which remained the best bowling performance of his Test career until he retired. After being dropped from the national team at the end of 2005, he returned in 2006 and scored centuries in back-to-back Tests in the 2006–07 Ashes series. He helped Australia retain the 2007 Cricket World Cup. On 9 November 2007, he scored his fifth Test century against Sri Lanka. On 6 January 2008, he took three wickets in the second last over to win a Test against India. In April 2008 he was named vice-captain of the Australian team. He won the 2009 Allan Border Medal in a tie with Ricky Ponting and was named Test Cricketer of the Year. On 5 December 2007, Cricket Australia named Clarke as captain of Australia for their one-off Twenty20 game against New Zealand in Perth. He was named captain of Australia's Twenty20 team in October 2009. In January 2011, he was named stand-in captain for the fifth Test of the 2010–11 Ashes Series. He announced his retirement from Twenty20 International cricket on 7 January 2011. When Ponting stood down from the captaincy after the 2011 World Cup, Clarke was appointed as his permanent replacement in both Test and ODI roles. In January 2012, in the second Test against India, Clarke scored a triple hundred of 329 not out.

Did You Know?

• Clarke's triple century of 329 not out surpassed Matthew Hayden's 307 as the highest score in an Australia-India Test at that time.
• Clarke's best Test bowling performance (6 for 9) came against India in 2004 and remained his best until he retired.
• Clarke was nicknamed 'Pup' and was a right-handed batsman despite being left-handed in writing and bowling.