Melbourne: Australian skipper Michael Clarke has announced that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 final on Sunday will be the last One Day International (ODI) match of his career.
Making a surprise decision at the pre-match press conference, Clarke said: “Tomorrow will be my last one-day game for Australia,” A career that began in 2003 will thus end in the final against New Zealand.
“I’ve just spoken to my teammates: James Sutherland (Australian cricket chief), Rod Marsh (chief selector) and Darren Lehmann (coach) and informed them that tomorrow will be my last ODI game for Australia. I’ve just found out that tomorrow will be my 245th One-day game. It’s been an honour and privilege to represent my country for that many games. I’m grateful to every player I have been lucky enough to play with, and this team is no exception,” he added.
Clarke has played 244 ODIs for Australia and made 7907 runs at an average of 44.42, with eight hundreds and 57 half-centuries. He led his country in 73 matches of which Australia won 49.
Talking about his one-day journey, Clarke said: “I think it’s the right time for me and the Australian cricket team. Like I said, I was very fortunate four years ago to get the opportunity to captain this one-day team and I think that was a really good preparation for me leading up to this World Cup; and I think the next Australian captain deserves the same opportunity. I don’t think it’s realistic that I’ll be here, I’ll be fit and healthy for the next - and available to play the next World Cup, so I believe this is the right time.
“I think I leave the game, the one-Day game, for the Australian team in a better place than when I took over the captaincy. We were knocked out in the quarter-final in the last World Cup but this time we have made it to the final, and hopefully we will go on and have success in the final too.”
Clarke has struggled with his back and hamstring injuries over the past 18 months and missed the first game of the tournament, handing the captaincy to George Bailey for the clash with England. Of late, he has also been criticised about his form and fitness and when he got out to Wahab Riaz’s short pitched delivery, comments were made that he could not have got out of the way with a problematic back.
Clarke then went on say that a bigger motivator for him to walk away from ODIs was to try and prolong his Test career. “That’s obviously a priority for me to continue to be successful in the Test format. By walking away from one-day cricket it probably gives me my best opportunity. I don’t feel bad about saying that I feel Test cricket is the toughest part of our game. I love that challenge; I see it as the pinnacle. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to offer to the Australian Test team as captain.”
