Michael Clarke apologised profusely. He had been having throw-downs and was almost an hour late for his first press conference of the tour, which is no way to get onside with impatient hacks waiting to get back to their Father’s Day pint and lunch. But the practice facilities at Merchant Taylor’s school near Watford are “world-class”, according to the Australia captain, and they had been enjoying their first real stretch since arriving from West Indies at the back end of last week.
It was all very good humoured and, Ashes series being what they are, probably the calm before the storm. For now, though, the only delivery that had any lift or movement on it was to seek a response to a criticism of the age of his team that had come earlier in the week from Clarke’s former international colleague Jason Gillespie, who had plucked out the generic “Dad’s Army” label that is used for any sporting team containing players of a certain vintage.
Clarke metaphorically stood up on his toes and turned it round the corner for an easy single, saying that he had “copped it all my career”, Dizzy could “join the queue” and that they might add the Yorkshire coach to “the long list of people that we have proved wrong”. In terms of hitting out, it was hardly the Walkabout bar in Birmingham.
Although Clarke said that he had not watched a ball bowled of the recent enthralling one-day series between England and New Zealand, and had viewed only a little of the Test series that preceded it, he must be acutely aware of the groundswell of optimism that the results, and in particular the manner of their achievement, have created in this country.
There is tendency here to teeter from one extreme to the other when it comes to our sport, with little room for the shades in between, but there is no question that the confidence engendered in one format can have an effect in another.
Clarke, though, is a skilled operator, articulate and as quick on his feet with his answers as he is when dancing down the track to the spinners. He does not buy into any game of predictions, either considered or outrageous. What about Graeme Swann, who tosses the verbal ball up invitingly now he is part of the media, and who suggested that Steve Smith, currently the world’s top-ranked batsman, might get found out in English conditions? He laughed at this. “I reckon Swanny is a beauty. I’ve always liked him and loved playing cricket against him. I am sure he is trying to get under the skin of a few of the players but it’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do. We will find out in five Test matches time whether Steve Smith is good enough to have success over here.”
OK, then, what about the spirit in which the games will be played? The matches against New Zealand have been noteworthy for the smiles on the faces of the protagonists, and the manner in which that evident enjoyment was conveyed to the spectators. Will there be calls for “broken fucking arms” and in-yer-face David Warner? “I am confident it will be played in the right spirit,” he said, although not entirely without caveat. “On the field both teams will play hard and I know I probably say this every series but we will respect there is a line you cannot cross. Both teams might head-butt that line but I am confident we will not overstep the mark. For us I believe it is important we keep an aggressive approach.”
He was curious on the subject of Warner however, who has expressed a desire to calm down a little on the field. In a recent article on ESPN Cricinfo, Warner is quoted as saying that “in the past I’ve been someone who’s been told to go out there and do this and do that, but at the end of the day I’ve got to look after myself. If I don’t want to be that instigator, I don’t have to be that instigator.” The implication is that it is Clarke and Darren Lehmann, the coach, who have given him instruction to be the chief attack dog on the field.
“As his captain I can guarantee I’ve never asked him to go and sledge somebody,” Clarke replied. “I think I can speak for the coach as well, that he’s never done that. The environment I try to create around this group is encouraging them to play the way they can play their best cricket, so for me, for example, being sledged or sledging someone else has never really impacted on me. It’s never affected me if I’ve copped it and it’s never helped me if I’ve opened my big mouth. Davey’s his own man – what is he 28 or 29? – and he can make his own choices. I want to see him perform as well as he possibly can. He’s a big part of this team, he’s in tremendous form and has batted well in all formats of the game for the last four months and we need him to be successful here. If he feels he’s said a lot in his career and he wants to say less now to help his game then I’m all for it.”
