New Pidge on the block

No two men can be completely alike, but Stuart Clark bears a startling resemblance to Glenn McGrath - when it comes to bowling, at least. One short of the ten-Test mark, 32-year-old Clark has unobtrusively slipped into the Australian fast-bowling saddle to purvey his trade in a manner that has the McGrath brand stamped all over it: he is consistent, accurate, nagging, tightening the noose around the batsman unerringly and untiringly.

Like McGrath, too, Clark may not mind looking at the speed-gun from time to time, but he is not express like his new-ball mate Brett Lee, who also happens to be his partner at New South Wales. "It matters a little bit, everyone likes to see the speed-gun up nice and high," Clark says, talking before the first game of the Future Cup, which gets underway at Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium today. "But I'd rather get it on the right spot than bowl 150kph."

But where McGrath singled out his prey before the fight began, and usually lived up to his threats, Clark is not your showman boxer who talks his opponent down at the weigh-in. Gamesmanship is not for him. He is happy to shrug his shoulders and turn back to his mark, rather than trade words with the batsman.

He is happy also to make use of the highly researched and developed McGrath formula. "He always kept it very simple - didn't matter what the conditions were, what the day was like; he was very basic. He knew what he wanted to do, never let anything get in his way." Clark thinks that adherence to the fundamentals is what McGrath will be missed for most, if anything.

The comparison with McGrath has been one that has increasingly been aired as Clark's star has risen, but Clark is clear about what an ask it is to fill the void. "I don't think it's difficult, it's almost impossible," he says. "It will be a similar role, but I'll only be able to do what I can, the best I can. I might offer something different but there's the stereotype he has set and I'll try and follow that."

On tour Clark carries with him books that will help him get a commerce degree from the University of Sydney. He may or may not have a head for numbers, but his cricket stats have been nothing short of impeccable so far: in his debut series, in South Africa, where he replaced McGrath who had to attend his ailing wife, Clark walked away with the Man-of-the Series award for his 20 wickets at just under 16, including nine in his debut Test at Cape Town. Then, in the much-hyped 2006-07 Ashes, he cemented his reputation as one of the leading bowlers around, grabbing 26 wickets at 17 - five more than McGrath and three more than Shane Warne.

That Clark entered the coliseum of international cricket without being intimidated owes a lot to the hard yards he put in for more than a decade at NSW, where he once boasted an average of 120 with the ball, and had to work at finding ways to enjoy the game. What has come out of those years of toil is a quality that is his biggest strength today, an asset he thinks is the biggest weapon in any bowler's armoury: consistency.

"You always work on it", explains Clark, pointing to Brad Hodge next to him. "Brad Hodge, Mike Hussey and myself, we had sort of 10 years of domestic cricket and we did this year-in-year-out before we got picked for Australia. So it is a skill that you have to learn in domestic cricket because you won't survive for a long period of time if you can't hone your skills and practise them."

Did he think things would look up for him the way they are beginning to? "Not nearly," he says. "I didn't imagine this would happen. It was nice to play one game and it has been great ever since".

About six months before his Test debut, one day during an Australia A tour to Pakistan, Clark and Hussey were talking about how desperate they were for the baggy green. "Neither of us had played and we talked about it." Clark recollects. "Now he has played 16 and I've played nine and it all feels surreal just to look back."

Clark's latest milestone came recently when, in the World Twenty20, he missed out on becoming the most prolific bowler in the tournament by one wicket, to Umar Gul. He thinks the lessons learned in the shortest format will pay dividends in the 50-overs game. "It's like the last 20 overs of a one-day game, where there is no fear of getting out, so whatever skills you execute, whether its slower balls, yorkers, bouncers, you need to be good at it. Umar Gul bowled good yorkers and that was his skill, [Shahid] Afridi bowled different changes of pace, I tried to bowl different changes of pace."

Clark knows that he is increasingly going to be Australia's go-to man, and is aware of the pressure that entails. "I'm actually uncomfortable with the word 'spearhead'. I don't like it," he says, after giving it thought. "I very much hate singling myself out. The media will always use the term spearhead, but we need to work together to be a successful team.

"There is a lot of truth to the whole bowling unit. If one bowler bowls well and the other three badly, you don't have a good day. We hunt in pairs or fours or whatever it may be. You can't bowl all by yourself, you need the other guys around you to bowl too. Like both Glenn and Shane bowled well together, and we need to do that without them now."

Not that Clark hasn't made peace with the requirements of his new job. "As a spearhead of the team you need to go out there and set the tone for the game and do it well. There are a lot more expectations, but that's fine. I expect a lot from myself and I want to get better and do better. New ball, first change, whatever it may be, that's not an issue, but the expectations will be a lot greater and that's something I'll have to deal with."

Clark and Mohammad Asif of Pakistan are perhaps the two lone current flag-bearers for the McGrath-Shaun Pollock brand of fast bowling. Both men have, like all the great fast bowlers, stressed accuracy over speed. Clark says he has not had any chats with Asif yet, but on evidence, he believes they share the same credo. "We both have a very simple plan: to build as much pressure as possible. If you can build the pressure on the batsman or on the bowlers, then you'll be more successful."

Clark may not have succeeded on as wide a range of pitches as Asif yet. His biggest successes have come on the bowler-friendly pitches of South Africa. What does he think of the challenge of bowling in India? "I played a Test in Bangladesh and in Pakistan [with Australia A]," he says. "The wickets tend to be generally harder for the bowlers to be successful. The challenge is more mental."

That's half the answer. He comes back to his old virtue to complete his point, when he speaks of what the Indian bowlers need to do to adapt during the forthcoming series in Australia later this year. "The key to bowling on any wicket is consistency. If you are consistent over a period of time you'll be successful."

Clark has stepped into McGrath's shoes, large or not, and whether he likes it or not. Merv Hughes, his selector, and former fast bowler had an important piece of advice when he presented the Clark with his baggy green. "The biggest thing he said was, 'There's an emu and a kangaroo, and there is something significant about those two animals - they don't go backwards. I'm sure you won't, but always remember that and good luck.'"