dibyabttb Posted March 28, 2012 Posted March 28, 2012 Australian captain Michael Clarke will play in IPL 2012 as a Pune Warrior. The confirmation of the deal between the Sahara owned Pune Warriors and Clarke came when Mr Sundar Raman, CEO, IPL T20 tweeted the news. "Michael Clarke to play for Pune warriors india in IPL 2012. #IPL" Mr Raman tweeted. "We are thrilled to have Michael Clarke on board. The reigning Australian skipper is one of the world's best cricketers. His presence in teh side and cricketing proficiency, will boost the prospects of Pune Warriors India in the DLF IPL 2012," Sushanto Roy, Managing Director, Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd was quoted in the Press release by the team. Michael Clarke who is currently the captain of the Australian team in the test and ODI format has been resisting the lure of IPL so far. In fact, preferring the longer formats of the game, Clarke had announced his retirement from the T20 internationals last year. However, a persistent Pune Warriors management was successful to force Clarke to change his minds. Clarke's availability for the IPL will be an issue which the Warriors will have to deal with. Australia has a three match test series to play against the West Indies and the series will be over on April 27. So, Clarke can play only in the second half of the cash rich T20 league. Known for his detest for the T2o format, Clarke has 488 runs from the 34 T20 international match he has played. However, Clarke has proved to be very effective in the ODIs. With 6953 runs from 212 ODIs at an average of 45.74, 'pup' is one of the best ODI batsman of present time. After Australian all rounder James Hopes was ruled out from the fifth season of IPL due to a knee injury, Sourav Ganguly led Pune was in search of an effective all rounder. They found more than they could have asked for in Clarke. The team management is also in talks with dashing Bangladeshi opener Tamil Iqbal and if sources are to be believed the deal will be struck in a day or two. SOURCE
Recommended Posts