Michael Clarke Speaks out
Australia’s Twenty20 captain and vice-captain to Ricky Ponting in the Test and One-Day format, Michael Clarke has finally rebuffed rumours in the media of a possible anti-Michael Clarke sentiment within certain players of the squad.
The middle order batsman claims there is no rift within the team and everyone is perfectly comfortable with him. Clarke admitted the fact that he feels a lot of respect from the players.
The reason Clarke has to defend himself is that over the recent months Australia have lost quite a few matches under his captaincy. The most recent is the 2-1 One-Day series loss to Sri Lanka. The visitors managed to defeat Clarke’s side on Australian soil for the first time in their history. Clarke was captain in two of the three matches during this series. Apart from the One-Day series, Australia also lost the only Twenty20 match of the tour against Sri Lanka as well. Clarke was also leading the team in the ODI that they lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
Over the past few weeks the Australian media has been treating Michael Clarke like a punching bag, accusing him for being the reason behind Australia’s losing debacles. Ever since Australia lost the first One-day against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120.
These rumours were rejected by North last week, claiming that he had not intended to lead the national side nor wanted to be Ricky Ponting’s deputy. North clearly stated that there was no rift within the squad and Michael Clarke is being supported by everyone and there is no chance of any rifts within the players of the national team.
Michael Clarke is confident that the players are totally behind him and he has their full support. Clarke stated that whenever he has had the opportunity to lead the team, his colleagues have shown him a lot of respect.
Now, Clarke appears to be enjoying his captaincy and does not appear to be under any sort of pressure. Clarke said, “I enjoyed the other night when Ricky wasn’t there, and I am really enjoying being vice-captain under Ricky Ponting.”
Michael Clarke responded to his critics by saying that everyone is entitled to have their own opinion. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, it’s important to be true to yourself, and true to who you are. People will make their judgment, but I think as a team we need to continue to work together and improve our cricket in all three forms of the game and we feel we’re in a good place.”
The outstanding performance of Australia in the third and the last One-Day against Sri Lanka under the captaincy of Michael Clarke speaks for itself, where the hosts annihilated the visitors to a disgracing eight-wicket defeat with 170 balls remaining.
Clarke played a captain’s knock by scoring an unbeaten fifty runs off just fifty-one balls. Such a performance just before the Ashes is definitely a good sign for him as well as for Australia.
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