Michael Clarke is a toxic piece of shit

horace wrote:nope...flew from Lilongwe to Mfuwe and was in the Zam Sth Luangwe River national park...feel incredibly lucky (ill deserved tho this may be)

OK

might get you to email me some photos anyway if you can

Zambia is the birthplace of TLA

I see the rand is in freefall...even the MKwacha is appreciating against the R

by the way...everyone I have spoken to here is appalled at SA turning Mandela into a 'living' mausoleum

skully wrote:

horace wrote:nope...flew from Lilongwe to Mfuwe and was in the Zam Sth Luangwe River national park...feel incredibly lucky (ill deserved tho this may be)

Any chance of dropping into Harare and stabbing Mugabe?  

I'll second that. Last week's 'Four Corners' was another damning indictment of that regime.

“Away from cricket, he moved in a different world to the rest of us,” Ricky Ponting's ghost writer wrote. “It never worried me if a bloke didn't want a drink in the dressing room, but I did wonder about blokes who didn't see the value in sticking around for a chat and a laugh and a post-mortem on the day's play. Pup hardly bought into this tradition for a couple of years and the team noticed.”


“The best thing I ever did was leave [Clarke]," Lara Bingle said. “But I require more for myself. I need to be stimulated more than that, you know?”

embee wrote:

“Away from cricket, he moved in a different world to the rest of us,” Ricky Ponting's ghost writer wrote. “It never worried me if a bloke didn't want a drink in the dressing room, but I did wonder about blokes who didn't see the value in sticking around for a chat and a laugh and a post-mortem on the day's play. Pup hardly bought into this tradition for a couple of years and the team noticed.”


“The best thing I ever did was leave [Clarke]," Lara Bingle said. “But I require more for myself. I need to be stimulated more than that, you know?”

It's a bit of an indictment on Clarke where the show "Being Lara Bingle" is a more stimulating and fulfilling activity than "Being with Pup".

Cred.....Quoting Bingle or quoting Wikipedia?

Hmmm......can we look at the developed print?

Well he comes across sometimes like he's got bipolar issues.

As for his crap captaincy, this is just the latest trend. Ponting was crap and went really downhill without Warnie whispering in his ear, and the few times Ksr was put under pressure he crumpled like a cheap suit.

Bradman wrote:Well he comes across sometimes like he's got bipolar issues.

As for his crap captaincy, this is just the latest trend.  Ponting was crap and went really downhill without Warnie whispering in his ear, and the few times Ksr was put under pressure he crumpled like a cheap suit.

Pup is crap WITH Warnie whispering in his ear. Make of that what you will.

Australia news

India hurt, but I have no regrets - Clarke
ESPNcricinfo staff
July 24, 2014

I

Almost a year ago to the day, Michael Clarke sat at Lord's embarrassed by his team's 347-run hammering which had seen them go 2-0 down in the Ashes. It was a low point, another one for Clarke in what was developing into a horrendous year for Australia but which finished with them overwhelming England in the return series.

A few months previously, on the tour of India, Clarke had been involved in the decision to suspend four players in an incident dubbed 'homework-gate' after Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja had failed to follow team orders between the second and third Tests of a series Australia went on to lose 4-0.

At the time Clarke made clear he was supportive of the disciplinary measures taken alongside Mickey Arthur, the coach, who would be sacked just days before the Ashes series in England began to be replaced by Darren Lehmann. And now, looking back at what he terms the "toughest period" of his captaincy, Clarke is adamant he has no regrets.

"In the build up to that event, there were a number of things that occurred over a long period of time; it wasn't just that event," he told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Mickey drew a line in the sand and yes, I was a part of it, I stand by that, but I don't regret it one bit. I backed my coach, I supported him and I believe the decision, especially now that I look back, was the best decision for Australian cricket."

However, what really cut to the core for Clarke was the label attached to his side during, and after, that tour of India. "I was more disappointed and upset at the fact a team I was captaining was labelled the worst Australian team to tour India; I blame me."

Of those players suspended for the Mohali Test, only Khawaja has now faded from the scene after playing three of the Ashes Tests in England. Watson returned to captain Australia in the final Test of the India series when Clarke was injured and would end up playing all 10 Tests in the back-to-back Ashes.

Johnson returned to the side against England in Brisbane with devastating effect and Pattinson, who began the Ashes in England before succumbing to another injury, regained his Test berth for the decider against South Africa in Cape Town, although he is once again under the cloud of a back problem.

The victory against South Africa at Newlands continued Australia's resurgence and a couple of months later, when the ICC rankings were updated, they had edged above South Africa into the No. 1 position. But Clarke is now determined to look forward at a period where his team will play Test series against Pakistan in UAE and India at home before the World Cup and then an Ashes rematch later in 2015.

"There's a hell of a lot still to achieve, I think our team's still growing," Clarke said. "I still don't think we're at our best as a group, but we're extremely proud of what we have achieved. We've got India, a tough test team coming to Australia this summer, and then we go back to England next summer for the Ashes, so there's still a lot of tough cricket in front of us, but we're excited by that."

All it achieved was getting rid of the coach

Watson missed a test he would have missed anyway ( Birth of his child) and then came back and was made captain ....WTF

Johnson wouldnt have played ...and missing the Ashes was his wake up call

Pattinson has been mainly injured since the incident

and

koaja kept getting out to spin in the Ashes and has disappeared

.....

In hindsight it was a ridiculous thing to 'draw a line in the sand' about ...especially when 4 players didn't care enough to do it

still TAYTPOC?

Isn't there a saying about the hardest iron being forged in the hottest furnace (which I don't think is correct scientifically)

I'm still on the fence but he may turn out to be one of our better captains, which would leave me with egg on my face.

Bradman wrote:Isn't there a saying about the hardest iron being forged in the hottest furnace (which I don't think is correct scientifically)

I'm still on the fence but he may turn out to be one of our better captains, which would leave me with egg on my face.

Well his batting won't improve as he has played over 100 tests.

Yeah you need heaps of red ink once that happens. Border managed it, but he batted at 5 or 6, and he's just a farking legend.

at least it helped get rid of a dud coach

We clearly need a few toxic pieces of shit in our team...

Bradman wrote:Isn't there a saying about the hardest iron being forged in the hottest furnace (which I don't think is correct scientifically)

I'm still on the fence but he may turn out to be one of our better captains, which would leave me with egg on my face.

How long will his back condition allow him to continue playing?

Dubber papers calling Clarke toxic



In the lead-up to the Sydney Test, the Australian team enjoyed a barbecue at the luxury South Coogee home of opening batsman Dave Warner.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom, three-level mansion reportedly cost Warner and his fiancee Candice Falzon $6.5 million last year. It was made famous two years earlier as the set for the UK reality TV show Geordie Shore.

On the surface, there is nothing exceptional about the Australian side's pre-match get-together, save for the person who wasn't there.

That Michael Clarke bizarrely didn't attend is a glimpse into the hurricane that is forming ahead of the World Cup and onwards to July to an Ashes defence on English soil.


How the final chapter of Clarke's career plays out will make Geordie Shore as eventful as Romper Room. Almost everyone involved in Australian cricket knows about it, is talking about it, and wonders where it will all end.

Probably in tears.

Clarke is at war with his superiors. And, as much as he belligerently holds onto the idea of playing for his country again, it is also clear his teammates have moved on without him.

In Steve Smith they trust. It's that simple.

Former South African captain Graeme Smith probably doesn't know how close to the bone he cut when he said this last week: "Michael has been an outstanding captain, but is more of an abrasive personality. It will be interesting to see now that they have been under Smith for the last few months and if Michael moves back into that space, how then that shifts the personality of the team."

There are two issues at play here: Clarke's broken relationship with Cricket Australia management and his relationship with his teammates.

The captain has been on a collision course for months with almost every level of the Cricket Australia hierarchy, from chief executive James Sutherland to high-performance manager Pat Howard to chairman of selectors Rod Marsh to coach Darren Lehmann. Some officials complain he's refused to return their phone calls.

Part of the tension is about team selections. When Queensland batsman Joe Burns was selected for the Boxing Day Test, Clarke was said to be angry about not being consulted.

Yet much of the animosity concerns his dodgy hamstrings and lower back problems.

There's a case for being the ultimate competitor, doing everything possible to get on to the field. On this score, Clarke has to be admired. There's another case for being an unwanted distraction for the team.

It was going to come to a head on November 25 as Clarke vaingloriously told anyone who would listen of his desire to play in the first Test against India at the Gabba.

The day before, he publicly contradicted Marsh about playing in a two-day warm-up match in Adelaide to prove his fitness.

Sutherland and others had enough of it. They were going to rule him out of the Test side and select Phillip Hughes.

Then everything changed.

Later that day, a Sean Abbott bouncer felled Hughes at the SCG and two days later the batsman's life support was turned off.

Clarke, his teammates and officials were united in grief. The skipper was the definitive leader as they laid their friend to rest in his home town of Macksville.

Suddenly, Cricket Australia suits changed their tune. They wanted their inspirational captain in the side for the rescheduled Test in Adelaide, where he scored a ton and tore a hammy.

Now, though, the issue of Clarke's future has flared again.

Privately, he is furious about selectors setting a deadline of February 21 — the second pool match against Bangladesh — to prove his fitness for the World Cup after hamstring surgery.

An eternal optimist and tireless when it comes to preparation, Clarke is adamant he will be fit – although most behind the scenes tell you he is a slim prospect at best.

They predict he won't recover in time, and that's when the hurricane will hit. Clarke's camp says he had initially been given until March 4 — the fourth pool match against Afghanistan — to prove his fitness.

There has either been a major miscommunication or Cricket Australia is setting up its own captain to fail.

If Clarke is ruled out, expect fireworks. At the very least, he will want to play Sheffield Shield cricket for NSW to prove a point. The Blues are already saying they don't want to be caught in the middle of the fight.

Meanwhile, in the Australian dressing-room, those in baggy greens are humming along quite nicely. They have seen life without the Clarke sideshow and they quite like it.

Smith is a laid-back character who carries a form guide in his back pocket. Clarke has often been described as a player who would rather spend time with celebrity mates.

And Clarke has no greater celebrity mate than Shane Warne. It was never more obvious how close the pair are than during their stint together in the Channel Nine commentary box.

During the Brisbane Test, Clarke was effectively commentating on the match via his own Twitter feed. He also retweeted a post from a fan who demanded he be part of the Nine commentary team while injured.

Like magic, Clarke was there in the middle of the MCG on Boxing Day, with a Nine microphone in hand.

For Nine, securing Clarke for the Melbourne and Sydney Tests was a coup. For Clarke, joining the commentary team of past players while still playing was an air swing.

He might've been insightful, he might've shown where his future will be in retirement, but many of his teammates were far from impressed as their captain openly discussed strategies, technique and what players were thinking and should be doing in the centre.

It was dangerous territory for a current captain to traverse. For instance, each time he passed comment on Shane Watson it was nearly impossible not to recall the ugly fallout between the pair in India in 2013.

Clarke's teammates were also said to be less pleased with his appearance in the dressing-room during those Tests.

It's been argued that Clarke was there for rehab purposes. Others say his presence was odd and a distraction.

How does Clarke return to a successful side? If at all?

He has been a polemic figure inside and outside the dressing-room almost every step of his undulant career. A platoon of former players often ask whether Clarke puts himself ahead of the baggy green.

Doubtless, he will see this column as an attack. It is not.

His decency and selflessness were there for all to see when Hughes died.

Yet everywhere you stepped this summer, the topic of conversation among some of the highest echelons of Australian cricket hasn't been about Warner's sparkling form, or Smith's captaincy, or whether Warney is single or not.

It was about Clarke and the hurricane looming on the horizon.

For a player who has played more than 100 Tests, scored more than 8000 runs, and captained Australia to an unforgettable Ashes victory, you would ideally hope his career finishes in dignity.

From Ferraris to being grabbed by Simon Katich by the throat at the SCG to Bingle-gate to Homework-gate to this latest imbroglio, it seems certain to end as it has always been.

Like an episode of Geordie Shore, probably in tears.

papers today are all tootling the same tune that pup is in strife with NSP and parts of the dressing room

ntr

good to see my ancient old flesh admired!

think pup has been set up...as I understand it is Haddit and Clotto who are bitter for different reasons...tho both believe they shd have been captain instead of Clarke..

whatever the murky truth it is clear the Spiv dressing room is almost as toxic as when fleas stalked the place...

time for us all to go off and read Ed Cowan again

There have been calls to leave Steve Smith as test captain regardless of Clarke's injury status.

Before Hughes' tragic death Clarke was on the nose with selectors et al but his demeanour throughout the grieving period seemed to alter perception for a while.

Clarke should remember how he got the captaincy. Seems like Abbott was helping legacies all over the place.

Basil wrote:

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

When Hussey is 80 years old and is a dribbling incoherent mess (a bit like someone else I could mention) he would still be a better batsman than Smith will ever be.  

This is JGK-like ...

lardbucket wrote:

Basil wrote:

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

When Hussey is 80 years old and is a dribbling incoherent mess (a bit like someone else I could mention) he would still be a better batsman than Smith will ever be.  

This is JGK-like ...

ROFL...I agree with Basil...Smith remains the SF until he can prove he is capable overseas...even against the duke bowled by the has beens like Jimmeh and never wasses like Broad