Michael Clarke’s ex-teammates wouldn’t be shocked he’s having a mid-life crisis writes MIKE COLMAN 

I’m thinking Michael Clarke’s former Test team-mates wouldn’t be too shocked at reports he is going through a mid-life crisis.

Nor would it surprise them that his morning radio show has tanked or he has resorted to talking about ex-girlfriend Lara Bingle on air in a bid to lift ratings. 

And I don’t think it would worry them too much either.

Back in December 2016, the newly-retired Test captain had just been added to the Channel 9 commentary team along with former England batsman Kevin Pietersen.

I asked Clarke’s ex-friend and team-mate Andrew Symonds how he thought Nine’s coverage of the season would rate.

Former Australian Test cricket captain Michael Clarke (right) is pictured with estranged wife Kyly (left)

Mike Colman says Clarke’s former Test team-mates wouldn’t be too shocked at reports he is going through a mid-life crisis. Clarke is pictured in Rose Bay, Sydney, on March 16

CLARKE DISCUSSES LARA BINGLE ON AIR AS HIS RADIO SHOW TANKS

Clarke’s first foray into the world of radio didn’t receive the public response he desired. 

He joined the Big Sports Breakfast team earlier this month alongside rugby league great Laurie Daley and Gerard Middleton.

Clarke’s first appearance on the show saw ratings dive to 0.4 per cent, down from its previous 0.9 per cent.   

On the airwaves on Monday, the former Australian captain addressed the long-standing rumour his one-time fiancee Lara Bingle flushed her engagement ring down a toilet when their relationship soured. 

‘How many times do I have to say I am dumb, but I’m not that dumb. I’m not flushing any ring down any toilet at any stage,’ Clarke said, breaking years of silence on the issue. 

‘She’s not that dumb, she’s not flushing any ring either.’

‘Well,’ he said. ‘They’ve just signed the two most unpopular people in world cricket so not too good I’d reckon.’

Symonds is one of several ex-players whose relationship with Clarke has soured over the years, as I was to discover when I covered his final Test series on the 2015 Ashes tour of England.

It had become an open secret amongst reporters on the tour that all was not well within the squad but no-one was writing it because they were there to cover the cricket, not the personal interactions going on behind the scenes.

As what is known as a ‘colour writer’ my brief was different and while no-one within the team would speak on the record, it soon became obvious that this was not a harmonious unit and captain Clarke was powerless to bring them together.

Or perhaps he had just stopped trying to.

There is no questioning that at his peak Clarke was a wonderful cricketer; a dashing batsman, athletic fielder and, early in his career, a more than capable bowler.

No-one could ever doubt his courage either, whether in battling a crippling back injury or facing up to the savage bowling of giant South African Morne Morkel during a superb unbeaten knock of 161 at Cape Town in 2014.

But it was off the field that Clarke struggled to shine as a team player.

Andrew Symonds is one of several ex-players whose relationship with Clarke has soured over the years. Clarke is pictured with Symonds during an ODI against India in 2008

Kyly Clarke (left) and Michael Clarke (right) pose at a Myer event at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in 2016

Left to right: Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden. The Australian cricketers are pictured during an appeal hearing in 2008

Back in the very early days of his career, when his boyish looks and boundless enthusiasm earned him the nickname ‘Pup’, a team official told me that he ‘feared’ for Clarke.

‘I’ve never seen anyone want it more,’ he said.

Thinking ‘it’ meant on-field success I asked why that was a problem.

‘It’s nothing to do with playing the game,’ he said. ‘It’s everything that goes on around it. He wants the money, the fame, the toys, and he wants it all so much that I’m worried it will destroy him.’

Clarke is pictured with model and ex-girlfriend Lara Bingle. The couple ended their engagement in 2010

Clarke (left) and Pip Edwards (right) were rumoured to be dating after the former cricketer split with wife Kyly

Clarke was pictured leaving Pip Edwards’ home in Sydney earlier this week

Within a few years Clarke indeed had ‘it’ – the Ferrari, Bondi penthouse and model girlfriends, but not everyone in the team was impressed.

At one stage Symonds was his closest friend in the side but the man they call ‘Roy’ was to find that he and Clarke had a different definition of mateship.

He wants the money, the fame, the toys, and he wants it all so much that I’m worried it will destroy him.’ 

Australian cricket official on Michael Clarke during his early years in the side

Symonds introduced city boy Clarke to fishing and hunting and the two became inseparable but that ended when Symonds was disciplined and sent home during a Test in Darwin in 2008.

Believing that Clarke had sided with team management rather than sticking up for him, Symonds never forgave him and they haven’t spoken since.

There was also the infamous physical clash in the SCG dressing room the next year when Simon Katich attacked Clarke for trying to rush Michael Hussey into leading the team song so that he could leave to meet up with Bingle.

Clarke and Hussey were at the centre of another team bust-up in 2013 when some members of the side chose to stay at the team hotel and celebrate Hussey’s retirement rather than join Clarke on a harbour cruise he had organised on Kerry Packer’s boat.

There were rumours of a long-running feud between two of the leading WAGS, Clarke’s then-wife Kyly and David Warner’s wife Candice. David and Candice are pictured at the 2020 Cricket Australia Awards at Crown Palladium in February

Clarke and Bingle are pictured at the Allan Border Medal at Crown Casino in 2010

No-one could ever doubt his courage either, whether in battling a crippling back injury or facing up to the savage bowling of giant South African Morne Morkel during a superb unbeaten knock of 161 at Cape Town in 2014. 

Mike Colman on Clarke’s unquestionable talent on the field. Off it, he writes, he failed to shine as a team player   

By the time Clarke announced his retirement following Australia’s loss at Trent Bridge in 2015, team morale was at an all-time low and Clarke’s position had become untenable.

Unable to score runs, the Ashes lost and increasingly isolated from the rest of the players, he pulled the pin with one Test remaining.

Given a tip that he would be announcing his retirement the next morning, two colleagues and I staked out the team hotel and found him in the bar, not with any of his team-mates but with long-time supporter Shane Warne and a Channel 9 producer.

Later one of the team told us, ‘He actually joined some of us for a drink earlier. We knew something was up then. He never did that.’

Australian cricket players were said to be upset with Clarke’s role in the dumping of team stalwarts Brad Haddin and Shane Watson. Haddin (left) and Watson (right) are pictured in 2013

Candice and David Warner are pictured with their daughters Ivy Mae and Indi Rae

It also turned out that Clarke often didn’t ride to games on the team bus, instead being driven in a car and rarely attended team functions.

Players were also said to be upset with Clarke’s role in the dumping of team stalwarts Brad Haddin and Shane Watson after the first Test and the offhand manner in which players were informed of selections.

Adding to the mix of toxicity on the tour was a long-running feud between two of the leading WAGS, believed to be Clarke’s then-wife Kyly and David Warner’s wife Candice. The other wives and girlfriends had reportedly taken sides and, by extension, so had their husbands.

When I wrote all this in a newspaper article the next day Clarke was soon on radio back in Australia denying any problems within the team, but significantly not one player or official came out in his defence.

Clarke (right) is pictured with coach Darren Lehmann (left) during the Ashes in 2013

Former prime minister Julia Gillard poses with Michael Hussey, Clarke and Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka on New Year’s Day 2013

In fact, a few days later I found myself in a hotel lift with Australian coach Darren ‘Boof’ Lehmann. I was expecting a blast or at the very least a mention of the article, but all I received was a half-smile.

When I told someone close to the team of the incident he laughed.

‘Oh Boof wouldn’t have minded,’ he said. ‘He would have liked it.’

Mike Colman is one of Australia’s most respected sports commentators. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has covered seven Olympics and major sporting events around the world. 

 

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