Australia beat New Zealand in the first of the two Test Match series today, and it the main talking point was the man-of-the-match performance from Micheal Clarke. Clarke scored a century in the first innings to help set up the ten wicket win for the Aussies, and under a lot of pressure from the media surrounding his well publicised break up with Lara Bingle.
After scoring his century he was very emotional in his celebration which showed how much he wanted to play well. I mentioned in a previous post that Clarke would respond to the media circus surrounding him and Lara Bingle by scoring a century in the one-dayers against New Zealand. While he didn't achieve that feat as he came back to Sydney to work out his relationship but he then broke up with her and reached a real low, and in his first outing since then he delivered what I thought he would.
As well another Australian batsmen, Marcus North, was under pressure from the media to keep his spot in the team after a lot of disappointing scores for country and state. The squad that is touring New Zealand includes young Stephen Smith which heightened the voices that Smith may make his Test Match debut. However, North responded, as he needed to, by making runs by also scoring a century. Notably it was the partnership between Clarke and North that really set up the Australian's win.
On another note, Clarke thanked Lara for her support after making his century which i thought was a bit much. Just man up and thank those that have been there for you the whole time. She obviously wants to find someone that will work and bring in the cash and allow her to not work for the rest of her life. So she can keep partying and doing sweet FA! Just going to leave that one there, thoughts...
After a week which has held much drama off the pitch as on it for Australia and Micheal Clarke many ex-players and journalists are questioning whether Clarke is fit to be the next Australian captain.
Well, if we were to look at this from a non sporting point of view then Micheal has done nothing wrong. All that has happened is he broke up with his girlfriend, these things happen. A lot. So whats the big deal? Well people who know are saying that leaving the team mid-way through a tour is not the best look, and doesn't help team harmony. One could agree with this as it seems that only a few players knew of his departure while the others found out when he was leaving.
As well people who are also in the know say that this split was coming for a long time. The photos and the fact that she sold her story, to the same publication which published the photos none the less was just the reason he was looking for to break it off. There is no doubt that Clarke knew of the photos before he proposed to her. we have all heard about how the photos had circulated around footballing circles well apparently that had done the rounds in cricket circles as well.
So why break it off? Well, I'm only speculating here, it could be that he was fed up with her work ethic or lack of it. It seemed she was quite happy for Clarke to work all year bring in the cash so she could live up the good life. A great apartment, a expensive sporty car and able to go out when ever she wanted.
All this suggests that while he may have chosen wrongly to leave his team, whats done is done and to those who make the decisions about captaincy I doubt they would have changed their mind about his ability to captain his country. The biggest hurdle standing in the way of Clarke and the captaincy is the current captain, Ricky Ponting. Ponting has already said that he wants another crack at winning the Ashes in England and the next time Australia tour there will be 2013 at which time Clarke will be 32 which may go against him if the selectors look to someone who will be able to captain for a longer period of time.
Australia has been in strong form in the last 5 months thanks to the good form of players making their way into the team and contributing with meaningful performances. Just look at Doug Bollinger who has become a regular starter in the Australian team and spearheads the attack. However, it has been the solid batting perfamnces of Shane Watson at the top of the order which have given the Australians a lot of confidence in recent months.
Watson is by no means new to the Australian team, with him being chosen for Test Matches and One Dayers over the last couple of years but has been hampered by several injuries. these injuries were thought to be end of his International cricket career. This has not been the case and when he got his chance to open the batting in England last year, he took it with both hands.
Since then he has been extremly solid at the top of the order in both One Dayers and Test Matches, getting Australia off to a great start almost everytime. The only thing that could be said against the 2009 Allan Border Medal winner, is that he fails to go on with it. Once making it to 20, 30, 40 or 50. He seems to be content and loose his way. Some of the greats, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulcar and Brian Lara almost never let a good start go to waste and are able to get the big scores to help their team to victory. This seems to be his undoing.
Watson only has one hundred to his name and that was lucky in its self. He was able to get to the 90's as he has done on several occasions, and looked to have thrown it away again but for the Pakistanis to drop another catch and hand him his maiden Test Match hundred. Although, he may not make the big scores he does get his team off to the start they want and one feels that his next stage of developement will be converting those 50's into 100's.
To all those that were reading this site before, just to let you know that the author has changed. All posts from February 2010 are from a different author.
I hope that you will continue to read and comment on this blog with your views on the great world of cricket.
James McKeown
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