The Sydney Sixers yesterday said they have spoken to Michael Clarke about his comeback plans as the former Australia skipper weighs up a tilt at Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League.
Clarke, who returned to Sydney club cricket over the weekend with Western Suburbs, has been linked with the Sixers about reigniting a T20 career in next season’s domestic competition.
Sixers general manager Dominic Remond confirmed preliminary discussions had been held with the batsman, who retired in August after the disastrous Ashes series in England.
“We caught up with Michael a few weeks ago to chat about his interest in the Sixers and what he was looking to do moving forward,” Remond told AFP.
Clarke said before his comeback club match that he “missed the game”, and wanted to have a crack at making his mark in T20s.
“We only have a few positions available on our roster and we are just working through our review process from last season,” added Remond.
“With the World T20 and IPL coming up, no decisions on roster spots are likely to be made in the near future as we decide on what is going to work best for our club for BBL06 and beyond.
“It’s a long off season so we will wait and see how things pan out in the coming months.”
Clarke, 34, scored what he described as a “rusty” 48 in his comeback match for Western Suburbs on Saturday and followed up with a quick-fire 30 off 17 balls in the second innings on Sunday.
He has maintained that he was taking a wait-and-see approach to resuming his career elsewhere, but has also made it clear that his focus from now on would be on the T20 format.
That has been given more weight by the emergence of the approach to the Sixers.
While Clarke played in 115 Tests and 245 one-day internationals, he only took part in 34 T20 internationals during his first-class career, giving it a low priority compared to Tests and ODIs.
Michael Clarke
