‘Don’t go there’: Michael Clarke in tense exchange over surprising Allan Border Medal confession

Michael Clarke had a tense radio exchange with a journalist after he made a surprising admission about his cricket career.

Former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke says he wouldn’t have attended the prestigious Allan Border Medal ceremony if he had the choice, even if he won the top gong.

Clarke was awarded the honour, which recognises Australia’s best player of the season across all formats, four times — in 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2013.

Watch Australia v South Africa. Every test match live and ad-break in play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Since it was first awarded in 2000, Clarke and Ricky Ponting have won the AB Medal four times each — the most out of any player.

But Clarke has confessed that if he had his way, he wouldn’t have turned up to the presentation if it wasn’t compulsory.

The revelation emerged during a discussion with NRL journalist Phil Rothfield about the St George Illawarra Dragons’ end-of-season presentation, where only three players attended.

Rothfield said the Dragons’ presentation was a disgrace and while Clarke agreed it wasn’t a good look for the club, he could understand why players chose not to attend.

“I’ll say this Buzz, they are not enjoyable nights,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.

Michael Clarke won the Allan Border Medal four times. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)

“I think of Allan Border Medal, right. The Allan Border Medal was compulsory, that’s why I went. If I was given the option, even winning the Allan Border Medal, I wouldn’t have went.

“Because it’s never the end of season for us. With cricket, it’s a TV program, so everything on there is done for television.

“And then you’ve got media around the whole time, so you can’t unwind and drink because there will be a photo or a video and someone being pissed or under the weather, and then you’ve got to read about that the next day.

“And then we generally had to go on tour or play a Test match, so we couldn’t really drink anyway.”

Rothfield responded: “You know what, you’re backing up my argument.

“You didn’t want to go, but you went because it was the Australian cricket team.”

Clarke hit back: “No, we went because it was compulsory. We weren’t given an option. It’s in our contract, we had to go.

“I think the Dragons, maybe they were given the option that they don’t need to go if they don’t want to. I’m still saying players shouldn’t gone.”

Rothfield then suggested that not attending the Allan Border Medal would have been disrespectful to the Australian cricket legend.

Michael Clarke would have preferred not to attend the AB Medal. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)

“I’m really surprised you’re saying this, in that Allan Border …” Rothfield said.

But Clarke quickly interrupted: “It’s nothing to do with Allan Border, don’t go there Buzz.

“Allan Border’s a legend, he’s the godfather. I love AB. Don’t make it personal.

“I could go to Allan’s house and see him, I don’t need to go to Crown Casino to see him.

“Don’t make it personal, it’s nothing to do with the medal being called after AB.”

Rothfield laughed: “How did I know that you and me were going to have one final disagreement for the year?”

Dragons halfback Ben Hunt conceded he was disappointed 27 Dragons players didn’t turn up at the awards night.

The event was rescheduled to a later date and fell at a time when players had been on annual leave since their season ended on September 3.

“It was a bit disappointing, in a way,” he told Channel 9.

“But a lot of players came to me when we found out about presentation night and mentioned they’d already booked holidays away.”

Originally published as ‘Don’t go there’: Michael Clarke in tense exchange over surprising Allan Border Medal confession