Pup courageous under fire

Photo: Fairfax

Showered with affection: Aussie cricket vice-captain Michael 'Pup' Clarke put his personal problems with fianceé Lara Bingle before a meaningless ODI series in NZ. What's wrong with that?

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OPINION: LET'S GET this straight. Michael "Pup" Clarke has supposedly let down his team, damaged his career, underscored his immaturity and exposed himself as a simpleton.

And how has he achieved all this, precisely?

By showing compassion; by putting others ahead of himself, and by revealing a sense of responsibility to those he holds (or held) closest and dearest. Gee, it's not hard to understand why everyone's so upset. What a complete no-hoper.

If anyone was in any doubt about the sort of double-standards we apply to our sports figures these days, they'd only need to skim the reaction to Clarke's decision last week, when he opted to leave the Australian cricket team to address a relationship crisis back in Sydney involving his fiancee, model Lara Bingle.

Seldom has so much opprobrium been heaped on a sportsman for taking such a principled stand. Compared with this, adulterous AFL star Wayne Carey only copped a mild scolding.

The irony is that there are so many ironies. It's perfectly OK, for example, for modern cricketers to put cash before country, to arrive late for tours, to leave early from tours and to sometimes not attend at all, in order to snatch as much Indian Premier League lucre as possible. But take a few days out from a meaningless one-day series to tackle the biggest issue of your life, and you apparently not only lack stability and backbone; you're unfit to lead or take over from current captain Ricky Ponting.

It's as if we're living in an upside-down world. Clarke, who has reportedly had two girlfriends in his adult life, is being portrayed as Australia's new "Lay Down Sally". The idea that he felt a greater sense of loyalty to the woman he loved than his day job was bad enough for some; the thought he was prepared to walk out on his team-mates was viewed as traitorous by others. I guess a more honourable team member would have turned off his phone and headed for a lap-dancing club.

Which brings us to irony No2. That is, at a time when sportsmen everywhere are being condemned and damned for all sorts of immorality, Clarke is effectively receiving the same treatment for putting his principles first. It's a strange world when golfer Tiger Woods, and footballers John Terry and Ashley Cole are exposed as philandering fools and we're happy to act appalled, yet we still castigate a man for putting family ahead of work.

Commentators on either side of the ditch have been lining up to discredit Clarke for not sticking to his day job. So much for the idea of progress. Ian Chappell reckoned the decision highlighted a lack of stability. Mark Waugh said it broke one of the game's unwritten laws; the one about never letting your private life encroach on your cricket. Columnist Peter Roebuck, bless him, went perilously close to suggesting the partners of top cricketers should stay in the kitchen.

Writing of Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Steve Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar, Roebuck said: "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." That's funny. I could have sworn that, while Botham's wife Kathy was learning "her role" and providing the necessary stability at home, her husband was wasting no time in playing the field. There was Lindy Field, the ex-Miss Barbados who claimed the pair made love so passionately they broke the bed; there was Kylie Verrells, the woman on the balcony. Botham didn't name his autobiography, Don't Tell Kath for nothing.

For all that, the suggestion seems to be that if Clarke is to have a soul-mate, she should be the type of person prepared to make more sacrifices for her bloke. Not a woman like Bingle, who (shock, horror) has her own career, has a relationship with the media, and can be made to feel vulnerable at the drop of a hat; sometimes merely when photographs of her in the shower are circulated in public. What a liability that must be. If Australian cricket followers ever needed convincing over Clarke's credentials as a leader, they should have received it loud and clear last week as he jetted back to Australia. Far from the actions of a deserter, this was a clear demonstration of strength of character, of courage, and not least, perspective. Clarke's easiest option would've been to ignore his partner. What he did took guts. And what's more, he was right.

It's all very well for the more black-and-white members of our community to bang on about keeping private and professional lives separate, and the need to avoid any chance of an overlap. The problem is that today's cricketers hardly have a private life any more. In most cases they're on the road for about 10 months of the year, having to cope with being absent from all sorts of personal events, from anniversaries and the birth of children, to the deaths of family and friends.

Occasionally, other issues will pop up as well and will have to be addressed as they surface. Clarke's problem is an example of this. But surely it's better that he takes a few days off to find a solution rather than remaining on tour, distracted and preoccupied. If the Australian powers-that-be have any sense, they'll not only give him time to complete the task, they'll also congratulate him for his priorities. For all that, you wouldn't want to hold your breath.

rboock@xtra.co.nz

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