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Michael Clarke, one of the best captains in history of cricket, has been inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) after he accepted the honour on Thursday, January 23. The 43-year-old is the 64th inductee to the esteemed list of players from the country into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, and there will be two names set to be unveiled this season.
During his illustrious career lasting over 12 years, which began in 2004, Michael Clarke played 115 Tests, 245 ODIs, and 34 T20I, accumulating more than 17,000 runs in total for his country. He captained Australia in 47 Tests, leading them to a famous 5-0 Ashes series win at home against England in 2013 apart from securing Australia their fifth ODI World Cup at home in 2015 just a few short months before announcing his retirement from international cricket.
Cricket is still a part of my life: Michael Clarke
The 28 Test hundreds scored by Michael Clarke, the sixth highest in Australian cricket, include a memorable 329* against India at the SCG, his home ground in 2012, apart from a couple of 150s, first one on debut versus India in Bengaluru in 2004 before one against South Africa in tough batting conditions at Newlands in Cape Town in 2011. During his prime batting years in early 2010s, the right-hander was named the best Test batter in the world for quite some time.
After getting inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, Michael Clarke was quoted as saying, as per ESPNcricinfo, “To be able to sit along so many wonderful players, idols, role models growing up as a kid and looking up to is something I'm honoured by. Retirement does a lot of things to you. Through stages of watching cricket now, you miss parts. When you play at the highest level, people talk about your international career but for me, it started at six years of age. I retired at 34 so it was my life. It's still a part of my life.”
“Cricket - it's probably so similar to life in general. You walk out and make 100 and then lift the bat, and then you walk out to field, field in slip and drop a catch, second ball of the game,” he added.
