Melbourne, August 19: Nothing short of holding aloft the replica of the urn next Monday will be enough to exorcise Michael Clarke’s demons from 2005, the Australia vice-captain said on Tuesday night.
As the leading run-scorer in the series, Clarke has gone a long way towards atoning for his relatively modest 2005 campaign, when he averaged 37, but that will be ‘worthless’ if Australia cannot retain the Ashes, he said.
Clarke has used the angst from that defeat as a driving force this year even though the events of four years ago have not been discussed within the squad, of which only five members were present from 2005.
“Once I arrived in England in the back of my mind there were memories from ’05 that I wished I could forget,” he said.
“But that’s what makes you a better player, you learn from your mistakes as an individual and a team. The guys that played in ’05 will be really keen to make sure the results are a lot different come Monday.”
With both sides in stages of transition, this year’s series has failed to reach the lofty heights of 2005 but, similar to its prequel, is still alive heading to The Oval.
Clarke drew a blank when asked to compare the build-up to this year’s Ashes finale against that from four years ago.
“I can’t actually remember the mood leading into this Test in ’05 because over the past couple of nights I’ve tried to relive it, tried to think about how I felt, and I can’t remember too much of it,” he said.
“(It’s) probably a good thing. The mood in the camp is very positive. We know it’s going to be a really hard Test, but we’re in a confident position at the moment.”
With a few notable exceptions, Australia’s team this time around does not have World Cup finals and a litany of Test triumphs all around the globe to draw encouragement from.
“As an Australian team, there’s a lot less experience in our team to ’05, but the one thing this side has shown over the last 12 months is that we do have the class, the enthusiasm, the desire to be as successful as any team that I’ve played in,” he said.
“Yes, we probably don’t have the greats at this stage of the guys’ careers like we did in ’05, but we’ve got everything else that comes from inside you that these players have.”
“Over a period of time you’ll see a lot of the guys in this side become very good cricketers if not great cricketers.”
If they do what a group of champions could not in 2005 and retain the Ashes their likely captain in 2013 will arrive on English soil with a lot less baggage.
—–Agencies