Love or leadership for Michael Clarke?

BY PETER ROEBUCK

OPINION: Michael Clarke needs to choose between a fraught personal life and his career in cricket. All the evidence indicates that the current position is untenable. As Mark Anthony could testify, obsession can be a man's undoing. If Clarke is unwilling to make the call, then cricket will make it for him. In the nick of time, Ricky Ponting sorted himself out. Now it is Clarke's turn.

Ordinarily, journos are the last people on earth able to speak about anyone else's affairs. Most adopt the approach advocated by the great Bill O'Reilly, namely that players are fair game on the park and otherwise off limits. Now and then, black eyes and publicised text messages force reporters to don the clean skin but it is an uncomfortable guise reluctantly undertaken.

However, it is no longer possible to turn the other ear and ignore the gossip and acrid gossipers. Clarke's hasty and presumably urgent trip home from New Zealand denies him the luxury of privacy. It is no small thing for a vice-captain to walk out on a team at any stage, let alone on the eve of a big match. A few days ago he was leading these same men and doing a good job by all accounts. Make no mistake, a lot is at stake, for a fine player and Australian cricket.

Ordinarily, a player rushes home upon hearing some dreadful news of a family loss, impending or completed. Or else he has been informed of a devastating sickness. Now and then a player is allowed to attend a birth in the modern way. Occasionally depression strikes a player down, a curse that afflicted Marcus Trescothick on the last Ashes tour. On these occasions, all and sundry conduct themselves with due sensitivity.

Clarke's case is different. His responsibilities do not permit withdrawal on any except the most desperate circumstances. None of the evidence indicates that any such conditions prevailed. Certainly he heard some bad news about his partner, but it pertained to disarray as opposed to crisis.

Clarke's problem is easy to state and hard to resolve. He seems to be locked into a love affair with a beautiful but possibly unstable young woman. Whatever the reality of her life, supposing reality makes an appearance now and then, Lara Bingle stumbles from public relations disaster to public relations calamity. Restaurateurs complain about her manners and the poor company she keeps. Fashionistas talk of her headstrong ways and strange customs. Moreover, she seems intent on boosting the sales of all those magazines bought by the female of the species. In short, she craves attention and courts controversy. Yet Clarke, the class act of the pairing, seems besotted. Beauty and danger have always been a potent combination. Look in the mirror and find another fool to that folly.

As far as Australian cricket is concerned, the problem is the instability caused by this turbulent relationship. Let us get away from all the talk about sportsmen being role models. Precious few of the younger brigade spend enough time away from their computers and iPods to give a hoot about anything else. In any case, it is time to stop expecting sportsmen to conduct themselves like novitiates. Let them inspire on the field and otherwise be granted the same leeway as everyone else.

Maturity is the issue. From a distance, the romance has all the traits of a schoolboy crush. Clarke has scored a stack of runs for his country, has travelled to many places, has seen and done a lot, has become accomplished. By now gilded youth ought to have given way to adult sensibility. Perhaps it has. Perhaps the problem is that Bingle remains the same waif-like figure supposedly in need of protection.

On this occasion, it is true, Bingle has been grievously wronged. Apparently some dickhead thought it amusing to pass around pictures of her emerging from a bath. Her chivalrous partner rode to the rescue. Nothing in her life, though, suggests that she has ever emerged from the chrysalis of youthful beauty. It's a dilemma. Clarke yearns to fulfil himself yet remains in thrall to a lass living in a celebrity time warp.

By and large, top-class sportsmen marry young. Among cricketers, Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Steve Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar walked the aisle at an early age. All of these marriages survived the ensuing years. In each case, the wife had the maturity and adaptability needed to survive the demands of the distant life. As a result they were able to sustain stable family lives and solid homes as their husbands soared and sank. They understood their role, did not make any extra demands. They were the counterpoint that ambition required. Accordingly, their partners were able to focus on their cricket.

Clarke has no such settlement in his life. Until it is obtained, Cricket Australia will be reluctant to put the national team completely in his hands. He has always come across as an essentially likeable young fellow currently a little off track but bound sooner or later to emerge as a sincere and big-hearted man. Now might be a good time to take that step.

- © Fairfax NZ News