When Michael Clarke first burst onto the Australian cricket scene he was already touted as a future captain.
After making a centaury in his test debut and then repeating the effort in his second appearance, many believed he would be the man to save Australian cricket.
Since that Clarke has been a solid performer for Australia and has shown leadership abilities worthy of an Australian Test Captain. After taking over the vice captaincy from Adam Gilchrist, Clark became the captain of the T20 national team before taking over completely when Ricky Ponting stepped down to focus on his cricket.
It’s only in the last months that Clarke or ‘Pup’ as he is known to his has had his captaincy tested and according to supporters he has passed with flying colours. Clark has shown he is a captain willing to take risks and make tough decisions.
In the West Indies recently he declared one hundred runs behind believing that his bowlers could take enough wickets to keep his team in with a chance of winning. He was right. Australia’s bowlers tore though the West Indies middle order tipping the game in Australia’s favour. Now in the Final test against the Windies Clark has said that he is prepared to lose the game in order to have a chance of winning it.
Despite Australia’s current strong position, rain on day four has made winning a difficult prospect. According to the latest cricket betting news, with a lead of just over 150 runs Clarke is set to declare early in order to give his bowlers a chance to win the game. While the tactic may backfire his courage has been raised by all sectors of the cricketing world.
Sports psychologists say that Clark’s confidence in his team may be a self fulfilling prophecy as players performing better when they know their leader has faith in their abilities.