Skipper Pup
U19 Vice-Captain
Seems people have missed the key point I made in jumping to respond.Yeah I remember when people had a whack at Clarke for doing roughly the same thing. Like ****, the bloke has taken 600 wickets for his country, won a **** ton of series for them, been their best bowler in this one. Let him have his moment in the sun, he's earned it. There's a real mean-spirited pettiness about these sorts of criticisms IMO.
There's no pettiness about it, I agree he's earned to go out on his terms. The difference is here he could have announced it before the series (and given us all 5 tests to enjoy the last of him) or alternatively at any other point during the series when he realized this was it. I choose to believe this is something he's been thinking about for a while.
Instead he decided to make it public once England were on top, in the process he has taken the spotlight away from the other legends who also won't ever play another Ashes test.