There’s one tome on captaincy that ranks above all others: Mike Brearley’s Art of Captaincy. Within its pages a budding young skipper can read up on field placings and tactics, psychology and selection. But there’s nothing in there about coping with the death of a friend and team-mate, never mind bearing the responsibility of being the public face of a sport’s overwhelming grief.
The Baggy Green captaincy has fallen on the shoulders of some strong men. But none have had to come through anything like this past week. No one has. There used to be a sense that Michael Clarke was a lesser link in the chain that ran from Border and Taylor through Waugh and Ponting. Those others you felt had been carved from granite or flint, while Clarke – all hair product and designer watches – seemed wrought from something softer. We have been thoroughly disabused of that preconception.
There is no redemption, no positive, no bright side, no silver lining to the tragic death of Phillip Hughes, whose impact, legacy and brilliance has been written about elsewhere in a fashion far more eloquent than anything I am capable of mustering here. Many things will never be the same again, and one of those things will be the world’s perception of the Australia captain. The nickname now seems misplaced. Pup doesn’t seem an adequate moniker for the man who has carried what he has carried over these last few tragic days.
On Friday Clarke read a statement on behalf of the players and staff of the Australian cricket team. The video is incredibly difficult watch. Quite how it was to be the focus of the camera’s lens is unimaginable. On Saturday, Hughes’s birthday, Clarke published a series of Instagram photos and tweets which were as poignant as they were painful. On Sunday he wrote a column for Australia’s Sunday Telegraph. On Wednesday he will attend the funeral of his friend and team-mate. In a week’s time he will lead his team out in Adelaide for what is sure to be an emotional first Test against India.
The previous perception may have been an unfair one but it has been inarguably altered now. The levels of dignity and character Clarke has shown in the days since Hughes’s death have been phenomenal. It is, I’m sure, the very last thing on his mind but the world now regards Michael Clarke very differently than it did.
It has been an awful week in the world of cricket but, as so often happens, a time of adversity brought out much of what is best about the game. Twitter, so often the home of sniping and snark, was home to some beautiful tributes. In addition to the #putoutyourbat hashtag that prompted such an overwhelming response, the Australian cricket writer Jarrod Kimber invited people to “Put up a #happycrickpic in honour of always smiling Philip Hughes.” The results were lovely and moving.
This is a short Spin as so much has been said so well elsewhere. There feels little else to add other than to say that in such a sad moment cricket has once again proven itself a special sport, full of very special people.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion