Michael Clarke has acknowledged the support he received from Brian Laraduring the tough times as he looked ahead to the Champions Trophy titleclash against West Indies on Sunday
Cricinfo staff03-Nov-2006
Michael Clarke: a debt of gratitude to Brian Lara © Getty Images
Michael Clarke has acknowledged the support he received from Brian Laraduring the tough times as he looked ahead to the Champions Trophy titleclash against West Indies on Sunday.”He’s been very helpful and is a great friend of mine,” said Clarke afterAustralia’s practice session at the Cricket Club of India (CCI). “When Igot dropped from the Test team, we were playing West Indies at thattime. He was there for that. He was very supportive as he has been since Imade my debut, since my first tour to the West Indies. We get along verywell. We talk a bit outside the cricket arena. We are pretty good friends.”While I was in Australia, I had a chance to catch up with him a fair biteven though I was dropped from the Test team. As friends do, you talkabout cricket obviously. He said that now that you have been dropped, itis important to go back to first-class cricket and make sure you stand upand be counted.”He asked me to be the one scoring as many runs as you can.Not just getting 50s and 70s, but scoring big hundreds and selectors won’tbe able to take their eyes off you. And they will have to re-pick you.”Clarke secretly hoped that Lara wouldn’t get too many in the final butemphasised the amount he’d picked up from watching Lara bat. “Anytime youget a chance to play against great players, you obviously don’t want themto get too many runs against you. But while they are batting, you canwatch and learn and see how they go about their job. I look forward toplaying against him. I look forward to playing against the West Indies team.They are playing good cricket at the moment.”Fortunately for Clarke, he’ll walk out onto the field with a number ofgreats as well. “All the young guys in this squad and in the Test squadare very lucky because we have some great players in the squad,” heexplained. “In our team, any opportunity you get to play cricket with themor be around them can only help you as a young cricketer. Being part ofthis Australian team, I am very lucky.”It is important to maximise yourtime with those guys – Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne andMatthew Hayden in the Test team. These guys have been very successful forsuch a long time. So I guess, if you can’t learn off them, you will neverlearn.”While admitting that West Indies would go into the game with tremendousconfidence, after their thumping semi-final win, Clarke didn’t think therewas much to choose between the two sides. “West Indies played fantasticcricket in the first game [against Australia],” he added. “They playedreally well and we could not chase the runs down.”But I think we are ingood stead at the moment. The last two games, we played brilliant. We hadtwo very good wins. All the boys are looking forward to our first final ofthe ICC Champions Trophy. We have never won this tournament. It is apretty big tournament. Hopefully, we will play better than the West Indiesand win the game.”