COMMENT

Michael Clarke can save Australian cricket. Again.

During his prime in the early days of his captaincy, Clarke — often batting at No. 5 — made a habit of performing rescue missions after his side had slumped to 3-for-not-many.

His epic 329 not-out against India at the SCG in 2012 (in at 3-37) and his 259 not-out against South Africa in Brisbane (in at 3-40) later that year show you just how vital his batting was to a team unaccustomed to dominating world cricket like sides he’d previously played in.

Now the sharp cricket brain that made him one of world cricket’s most innovative and forward-thinking skippers can serve another purpose for Aussie cricket, this time in the commentary box.

The 35-year-old will take up a full-time role with Channel 9 this summer as the network broadcasts the home Test series against South Africa and Pakistan. He’s commentated before, such as against India when he was out injured during the 2014/2015 summer, but this is the first time he’s committed to an entire series.

And don’t we need it.

The Channel 9 commentary team has undergone a changing of the guard in the recent years. Tony Greig and Richie Benaud have passed away and Bill Lawry only calls the occasional game in his home state of Victoria, so now a younger generation are our voices of summer.

They’re far from newbies, having already been part of the team for years, but the likes of Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Shane Warne and occasionally James Brayshaw played with and against each other during their careers, explaining the tight bond they share behind the microphone.

The Nine commentary team has been labelled a boys club where former teammates get together to reminisce about the good old days. It’s been criticised for being less about the cricket and more about reaffirming how good they all were or ribbing each other for that awful leave or dropped catch against the West Indies 20 years ago.

A hilarious take on the whole situation by Geoff Lemon pretty much summed up how many Australians felt about what it was like to sit down in front of the tele in the warmer months — you just can’t go past the line “It’s all about being the matiest mates who ever mated.”

Clarke needs to change that culture.

He rubbed people the wrong way with his fast cars, earrings and model partners because he was a man who made his own choices and didn’t care about following the stereotype of what an Australian cricketer should be. Now he needs to break the stereotype of what a Channel 9 commentator should be.

The New South Welshman never really fit in as “one of the boys”. The first Gen Y player to entrench himself in the Australian set-up, he never caved to what others expected him to be.

There was the infamous dust-up with Simon Katich in the SCG dressing rooms because he wanted to hit the town with then-girlfriend Lara Bingle rather than drink stubbies of VB in the showers with his teammates.

Matthew Hayden said last year they should have taken Michael Clarke’s Baggy Green when he threatened to hand it back if he had to field at bat-pad, and former coach John Buchanan said the Baggy Green culture deteriorated under Clarke’s leadership because that sense of mateship and camaraderie had disappeared.

These are all examples of Clarke refusing to toe the party line. They aren’t anecdotes that endear him to people, but they do give an insight into his approach to life.

From the outside, you always got the sense Clarke wasn’t quite fully in synch with all of his teammates. That he was on the periphery as both player and captain.

That’s not a criticism, merely an observation. Clarke was his own man as a player and he wasn’t going to change his ways just so he could fit in. We need him to follow that suit when he takes up the microphone.

During the final Tests of that series against India two summers ago we got a taste of what he could offer. He was articulate, he was intelligent and he spoke about the bloody cricket.

He told us why Nathan Lyon would start spells bowling around-the-wicket and explained how bowlers were looking to set Shane Watson up for an LBW. There were some critics of that in particular — he was still a current player, and some thought he shouldn’t outline his teammates’ weaknesses on national TV — but he didn’t care and provided an insight none of the other commentators could.

The one thing that stood out about Clarke’s commentary during that series was the moment where he stood up for the always under-fire Watson, effectively making him a one-man opposing team in the debate of “Why we should all hate Watto”.

Watson scored 81 of the ugliest runs you’ll ever see from a man renowned for his incredible ball-striking in the first innings of the final Test at the SCG, and he took a laborious 183 balls to score them.

He managed only seven fours, and it was hard to tell who was in more pain during his stay at the crease — himself or everyone else who was forced to watch it. He copped his fair share of flak for that innings, especially when he was caught on the mid-wicket fence, because people used it as ammunition for the argument that Watson was past his best because he could barely get the ball off the square.

But analysing the innings during a break in play, Clarke had a completely different viewpoint, describing it as one of Watson’s best Test innings. Coming off a lean trot where he’d only scored one half-century in seven digs, Clarke lauded Watson for coming in with a plan and sticking with it under extreme pressure.

He described how Watson had shelved his big boundary shots — not easy for someone who prefers fours and sixes to ones and twos — and then showed great determination to stick to his new defence-minded approach even when he must have felt awful at the crease. He articulated how displaying that kind of resolve — no matter how badly he was hitting the ball — was a big tick next to the all-rounder’s name.

It was a valid point that deserved recognition, and one that would have been missed had Clarke been absent.

That’s what he needs to bring this summer, some actual insight into what we’re seeing on our screens and why it’s happening. He can’t care about saying the right things to fit in with Slats and Tubby and Heals, and history shows he won’t.

Please, Michael, you’re our only hope.