Clarke’s not perfect but he’s his own man

At his home ground Michael Clarke wore a baggy green cap and long buttoned shirt while easing a clean-skin bat around for a triple-century. Then he declared, thinking of the team first and not individual records or even sentimental ones.

An innings like this should be the moment that Clarke goes from being a top Australian player to an iconic figure. The leap from player to legend. Australia captain-elect to Aussie skipper. It may do that, but with Michael Clarke, I just never feel like people are willing to let him be Michael Clarke. I remember a story about Clarke arriving in Australia after his scintillating slap-happy debut in India. It was all about him having done his hair before departing the plane. It was an odd story even then, but it was written to show that Clarke was a different kind of player to other Australians.

Over the years I’ve never really understood Clarke, but what has confounded me more is why others don’t like him.

Clarke likes flashy cars, as does Shane Warne.

Clarke likes flashy women, as does Shane Warne.

Clarke spends a lot of time on his appearance, like Shane Warne.

And Clarke likes trendy places to eat and drink, yet again like Shane Warne.

Yet Clarke is seen as the modern metro man, somehow un-Australian (probably the most un-Australian word ever) and weird. While Warne is seen as just a knock-around bloke, even as he slowly morphs into a freaky Ken doll. Australia is not an “ocker, pour warm beer down your best mate’s shorts” kind of place anymore. At the SCG they tell people to watch out for their chairs. It’s a nanny state. I know heaps of Aussie blokes who are just like Michael Clarke. (Though I still also know heaps of guys like Dougie Bollinger.)

Clarke is different to the old generation of Test cricketers. Listen to Neil Harvey for 15 seconds, and you’ll realise the Invincibles were different from Ian Chappell’s era, who were different from the Border and Waugh eras, and that they were all rubbish compared to Harvey’s. Australian cricketers might all share similar characteristics, but Allan Border was far different as a leader and person from Richie Benaud or Warwick Armstrong.

Ponting and Clarke are different. I’m not sure Ponting would have been as comfortable if Steve Waugh had stayed on as a player. With Clarke, it seems a natural fit already.

Clarke is not the standard hard-as-nails-bite-your-throat-off-to-get-an-extra-run Australia captain of recent times; he’s more like Mark Taylor. He gets the job done in an officious, middle-management, I’d-like-to-leave-early-to-get-nine-holes-of-golf-in sort of way. If it works best for him, why should he become someone he isn’t? His 151 against South Africa last year was tough and gutsy, but few fans seemed to notice.

Clarke is by no means a perfect cricketer. Early in his career he often made runs only when massive platforms had been built for him. He spent years hitting the ball at catchable heights. When he remodelled his batting he seemed to only give himself second and third gear. His ability to go out just before major breaks was very costly to Australia. An average of 45 (before this innings) is not enough for someone of his talent. And his persona can come across as staged to outsiders.

But even with all that, his biggest problem seems to be that he is not Ricky Ponting. At the press conference yesterday, after he had walked off the field on 251 not out, even the press just wanted to talk to Ponting, who fielded the first five or six questions. Outside the ground the crowd still didn’t warm to him, with many fans I interviewed on the Two Chucks still abusing or mocking him.

Only Channel 9 has ever seemed to warm to him. Last summer they barely mentioned the fact he was booed at almost every ground in Australia, mostly by Australian fans.

You’d have to wonder if Clarke’s name will ever be whispered in awe the way Warwick, Richie, Ian, Allan, Steve and Ricky were and are. There are two ways to get people to do that: win Tests at home, and play an iconic innings.

It also doesn’t hurt if Clarke plays innings like this, with the Steve Waugh-approved baggy green on his head.

And with a shaved head he doesn’t have to worry about getting caught fixing his hair when taking the cap off for an interview after ten hours of batting. Which is what really matters.