Michael Clarke
Captain’s Diary
After a three year losing streak in the Ashes, complete with a painfully recent 3-0 loss in England, facing the victorious English cricket team so soon was never going to be an easy battle. The public’s faith in the young Australian team was waning.
Despite their failures, captain Michael Clarke records in his diary a feeling of hunger in his team: a hunger to strike back, a hunger to prove their talent to the world. A hunger to return the urn.
Michael Clarke led his team to an Ashes victory at home in a 5-0 triumph over the 2013-14 summer. Along the way, the tide of public affection turned in his favour for the first time. Clarke had previously been respected for his deeds as a batsman, but had not truly won the hearts of sports fans.
This Ashes series changed that. Clarke showed the grit, talent, charisma and aggression Australian sports fans look for in their leaders. Revealing and insightful, Clarke once again puts his unique mark on the sport, giving us his account of how he rallied both the team and public behind him to bring the urn home.
Michael Clarke
Ashes Diary 2015
MICHAEL CLARKE’S DIARY OF THE 2015 ASHES – HONEST, INSIGHTFUL, EMOTIONAL, EXPLOSIVE.
After a stirring 5-0 triumph against England last summer, hopes were high that Michael Clarke’s World Cup-winning Australians would seize the Ashes on English soil for the first time since 2001.
Ashes Diary 2015 tells the inside story of a remarkable series filled with dramatic twists and turns. Captain Clarke takes us behind the scenes of the Australian squad – into the dressing rooms, onto the tour bus, profiling the players and getting us up close and personal for every team talk, strategy meeting and training session.
Day by day, Clarke shares with us the innermost feelings and private thoughts as the Australian captain while he negotiates form breakdowns, selection meltdowns, dizzying highs and despairing lows on the hunt for an historic victory. After 115 Tests over more than a decade, Ashes Diary 2015 is Michael Clarke’s straight-shooting farewell to cricket.
First published 2016 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Michael Clarke 2016
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781925483819
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Jacket and case design by Debra Billson
Internal photo sections by Mark Thacker, Big Cat Design
The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked should contact the publisher.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this book may contain images or names of people now deceased.
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