Michael Clarke's Message To Teammates During 2015 World Cup Triumph

Michael Clarke’s Australia beat New Zealand to clinch their fifth World Cup title in 2015. One of the dominating forces in world cricket, Australia had a star-studded line up in the marquee tournament, led by Michael Clarke.

Australia had lost only one match in the group stage – against New Zealand. While the Kiwis topped the pool, winning all their matches in the group, they were outplayed by Australia by seven wickets in the summit clash.

Play with freedom: Michael Clarke to teammates

Australia had a problem of plenty in the 2015 World Cup. Their squad consisted of premier players like Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh. Clarke said, he wanted his teammates, to play with freedom.

“My message throughout the whole tournament was ‘play with freedom’,” Cricket.com.au quoted Clarke as saying.

“The thing about the squad we picked is we had so many superstars who wanted to be on the big stage,” he added.

Michael Clarke wanted X-factor player to make it big

The World Cup is a stage where every player wants to leave a mark. Clarke wanted his X-factor players under the likes of James Faulkner, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith and David Warner to make an impact.

“There was a lot of big egos on the team and they wanted the bigger game, bigger crowd, bigger moment,” Clarke said.

“For me it was about our training and preparation being so important because then all I wanted to do was allow these x-factor players – Faulkner, Maxwell, Warner, Starc, Smith – these superstars to get on stage and show the world how good they are, and that’s what happened,” he added.