THE HERALD REPORTS

Clarke could have played in Scotland

WILLIAM DICK December 06 2006

Australia's Ashes hero Michael Clarke was rejected by a non-league Scottish club, it was revealed last night.
The Australian, who scored a crucial first-innings century in the Adelaide Oval humbling of England, was considered by Glasgow Accies, then a Western Union outfit, as a teenager, but the New Anniesland club did not think Clarke would fit the bill as their overseas amateur.
Colin Dawson, the Accies coach, said: "Michael Clarke's name was mentioned as a possible recruit when he came to Scotland with a New South Wales schools side in 1998. He looked a class act and was man of the match in a game against the West District Under-18s.
"Glasgow Accies were looking for an overseas amateur and I made a casual suggestion to the club that Michael might be worth considering, but he was only 16 and my own feeling was that he was too young; the rest of the guys in the club agreed."
Dawson added: "When you look at what he's gone on to achieve it would be easy to have regrets but that's not the case. If he'd been a couple of years older I'd have been disappointed if we had not pursued it because he was obviously a cut above."

This article was posted on 6-Dec-2006, 20:28 by Hugh Barrow.