Melbourne: World Cup-winning former captain Michael Clarke has become the 64th player to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, the sport's governing body in the country announced on Thursday.
The induction ceremony took place at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
"Over 8600 Test runs, 28 hundreds and the only cricketer to hit a Test triple-century on the SCG.
"Congratulations to former Australian captain Michael Clarke AO on his induction to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame," wrote Cricket Australia on X.
In his 12-year career, Clarke piled on the runs in Tests and ODIs, aggregating 8643 and 7981 respectively, at an average of 49.10 and 44.58.
He reserved his best for the longest format in which he amassed 28 hundreds including a memorable 329 against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
He played as many as 35 Tests against England and 22 against India, averaging more than 56 against both the top teams with seven hundreds apiece.
The 43-year-old captained Australia to a 5-0 series win the 2013-2014 Ashes and also the ODI World Cup triumph at home in 2015.
"To be able to sit along so many wonderful players, idols, role models growing up as a kid and looking up to is something I'm honoured by," Clarke said at the SCG during the induction ceremony.
Clarke also earned widespread appreciation for the manner in which he steered the team after young opener Phil Hughes died in 2014 while playing a domestic match, leaving Australian cricket in a state of shock.
The two played for New South Wales in the domestic circuit and were best friends.
Clarke was the Australian captain when Hughes died after being struck on the neck by a bouncer during a Sheffield Shield match in Sydney. A shattered Clarke was one of Hughes' pall-bearers during the funeral and sobbed through a stirring eulogy for the departed player.
Days later, he scored his 28th Test hundred in the first Test of a series against India in Adelaide and dedicated it to his "little brother". Clarke retired from cricket in 2015 after the Ashes series against England.
"Retirement does a lot of things to you. Through stages of watching cricket now, you miss parts. When you play at the highest level, people talk about your international career but for me, it started at six years of age. I retired at 34 so it was my life. It's still a part of my life.
"Cricket - it's probably so similar to life in general. You walk out and make 100 and then lift the bat, and then you walk out to field, field in slip and drop a catch second ball of the game," he reflected at the SCG on Wednesday.�
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