Michael Clarke’s retirement decision overshadowed the eve of the Cricket World Cup final, with the Australian captain using a pre-match news conference to reveal Sunday’s tournament decider against New Zealand would be his last one-day international.
Clarke, who turns 34 next week, said he told his teammates of his retirement about 10 minutes before announcing it to a packed news conference on Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
He said wanted to give his successor a full four-year cycle to prepare a team for the 2019 World Cup, and hoped that a break from the shorter format would allow him to continue playing test cricket for longer.
“I was very fortunate four years ago to get the opportunity to captain this one-day team (and) that was really good preparation for me leading up to this World Cup,” he said. “The next Australian captain deserves the same opportunity. I don’t think it’s realistic that I’ll be fit and healthy for the next World Cup, so I believe it’s the right time.”
Clarke has had a chronic back problem throughout his career and has recently struggled with hamstring strains, requiring surgery late last year that kept him out of action for more than two months between the finish of the first test against India and Australia’s second match at the World Cup.
Clarke had regularly filled in for Ricky Ponting before replacing him after the 2011 World Cup. He matured further as a batsman and leader after being elevated to the test captaincy.
In his most tumultuous period since assuming the national captaincy, Clarke was strong and dignified in the way he dealt with the public focus and personal grief following the sudden death of friend and former teammate Phillip Hughes after a domestic match last November. That gave the Australian public a great insight into a player who had been a regular in the national team for a dozen years.
Clarke was part of Australia’s winning team at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, and a member of the squad which lost in the quarterfinals in 2011 to eventual champion India.
“I think I leave the one-day game for the Australian team in a better place than when I took over the captaincy,” he said. “Last World Cup, we were knocked out in the quarterfinal. This World Cup we’ve been able to make the final and hopefully we can go on and have success in that final.”
It’s “obviously a priority for me to continue to be successful in the test format,” Clarke said, “and I think by walking away from one-day cricket it probably gives me my best opportunity.”
