Clarke steels for start of big summer

In early afternoon at Coffs Harbour Airport on Thursday, Michael Clarke sat quietly with his wife Kyly and his fitness trainer and friend Duncan Kerr. Clarke had been with Phillip Hughes' family earlier that day as they bid final farewell to their son and brother at a private cremation.

Now Clarke was heading back to Sydney and then Adelaide, a day behind his team-mates and still grieving. His only concession to cricket had been to continue daily training and work on his recovering hamstring in the company of Kerr, who also happens to be a paramedic.

Their transport back to Sydney was to be by helicopter, but as they waited in the airport lounge a Virgin flight was boarding. Crossing paths with me, Clarke spoke quietly and with gratitude about the way the previous day's funeral had unfolded. The time had come though to leave the New South Wales north coast and return to cricket. "See you," were his parting words, "through the summer."

There is not a single person in Australian cricket anything other than delighted that Clarke is now fit to play and ready again to be captain. His qualities as a leader have come through in the most distressing of situations, where he balanced his own grieving with long hours working as the link man between the Hughes family, the national team and other friends and mourners.

The time Clarke spent as a spokesman was also notable, from his brief statement for the family on the day Hughes died, to a more emotional address on behalf of the team. Finally there was his speech at the funeral, which no less an authority on the matter of words than Malcolm Knox said "might have been the finest speech ever given by an Australian sportsman".

Notably, Clarke has not spoken publicly since his arrival in Adelaide. This has effectively been the team returning a favour to Clarke for his time at the forefront of public attention in the days between Hughes' collapse at the SCG and the funeral in Macksville. Ryan Harris, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson have all taken up the slack as senior players by extemporising honestly and at times painfully about the challenges of resuming cricket in circumstances no-one had ever conceived of encountering.

But Clarke's absence from public discussion has served another purpose, allowing him vital extra time to steel himself for what lies ahead. It should not be forgotten that before Hughes was hit, the mixed messages surrounding Clarke's recovery from increasingly stubborn hamstring troubles suggested a captain at odds with his selection panel and a body growing ever more problematic in the face of physical scrutiny.

In Adelaide, Clarke has done all he needed to prove he is limber and strong enough to push through the next five days, whether it be by running in the parklands or batting in the Oval nets. Like other team-mates clad by Masuri, he has opted for the company's newest variety of helmet this week, and taken the required time to get used to its slightly greater weight and wider protective radius.

Clarke has been driven by a desire to lead the team that he has stood at the front of since 2011, and by that to honour Hughes with runs and a victory over India. He has also been encouraged by the memories of batting in Adelaide, where his record is marked not just by some staggeringly high scores but also the rarest kind of consistency. Since a quiet first Test at the ground against New Zealand in 2004, Clarke has never left Adelaide without at least cresting 70, and six times he has saluted the Oval members by passing three figures.

One of Clarke's batting habits is to have a song or two in his head while batting. The tunes allow him to switch off between balls, and he frequently asks his partners for a recommendation. Walking to the wicket on Tuesday, there is some chance Clarke's mind will cast back to the songs played at Hughes' funeral. Youth Group's Forever Young and Elton John's Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me were not just fitting bookends to the service; they would be poignant accompaniment to the sort of innings Clarke will dearly want to craft this week.