Joe Clarke: "I want to play Test cricket, that's always been my main focus"

JAMES COYNE speaks to the Nottinghamshire batter, two months after he was on a list of standby options for the Test series in the Caribbean

There's only so long than an athlete can put up with the tag of 'best uncapped player in the country' – but that’s pretty much where Joe Clarke has sat for a number of years now.

Ever since 2015, when Ian Bell declared on the spot that Clarke would play for England after seeing him hit 50 for Worcestershire in seaming conditions at New Road in a County Championship game, he has had that tag around his neck.

In his case, there are mitigating circumstances – well-reported ones – for why it hasn’t happened yet.

Even with the wealth of options in white-ball cricket, Clarke would surely have played for England already were it not for the moratorium placed on him for his role in a WhatsApp group discussing some Worcestershire players' sexual activity. His team-mate Alex Hepburn being charged, and later convicted, of rape. Although Clarke and Tom Kohler-Cadmore were not guilty of any crime, the pair were removed from an England Lions tour and a temporary suspension placed on their availability. They served that suspension some time ago.

Clarke had just arrived for the Pakistan Super League in February when the ECB performance director Mo Bobat called to explain he had been selected as a Covid replacement player for England's Test series in the West Indies. It was his first contact with an ECB figure in almost three years. Given the state of England’s Test batting, there's an argument to say he should have been selected outright.

Either way, the ECB have stayed quite tight-lipped on him. He was never formally announced as a Covid replacement, and Clarke says has not been categorically told when the informal ban from England selection elapsed. But he does say the phone call was a morale boost.

"I don't know how long [the case] was held against me. I'm trying not to think too much about that and just try and perform out there for Notts and in the competitions that I have the opportunities in.

"I guess I went from someone who was consistently in touch with people from the ECB to not having any communication for a long time. It was a nice phone call, just to know that my name is back in the frame."

^{Clarke spent the first part of the winter in the Big Bash with Melbourne Stars (Mike Owen/Getty Images)}

He timed his run of form in the Big Bash just too late, as he might have made England's T20I series in the Caribbean in the new year. England captain Eoin Morgan told The Cricketer at the time that Harry Brook had been selected ahead of Clarke purely for cricketing reasons (until then Brook being possibly one of the few other contenders for the best young England-qualified all-format batsman yet to play an international match).

But, whenever it happens, everyone in English cricket must sense there will be some kind of social media furore when Clarke or Kohler-Cadmore is finally selected in an England squad. As we saw when Ollie Robinson made his England debut last summer, and his historic social media posts were dredged up simultaneously, there may be a possibility that someone online is harvesting some information on Clarke to circulate when he makes his debut.

"I don't really look into that, to be honest," he says. "Social media is social media. I know that, basically, if I score runs then I'll put myself in the hat and that’s all that I can control. I can't control what people say on social media."

When asked if he has said all he had to say on the matter of the WhatsApp group, Clarke said: "I don't know. Maybe that's for other people to think. I don't go out there to say stuff on that. I feel like I just want to concentrate on the now and what can happen in the future. I feel like that was a long time ago and I don't want to keep going back to that. I feel like I've moved on from that. So that's why I don't tend to read or listen to those sort of comments."

Clarke appears fully focused on cricket. And he has the challenge – familiar to players of his age and ability – of maintaining his temperament and technique when playing across three formats (although strictly it is five, as he has also played The Hundred and in T10 leagues). While it is not just about stats, the fact that he averages 37 in first-class cricket, 34 in List A and 28 in T20 suggests he is succeeding with his heavy workload.

While Clarke played in both the Big Bash and PSL this winter, he did not put his name into the mega-auction for the IPL, the biggest T20 tournament, and the one he is yet to play. Perhaps he doubted his chances of a deal, but he says he also did it to protect his red-ball game leading into this season. With England struggling in Test cricket and a new ECB managing director of cricket to be appointed, this summer could be the one.

"When those changes were made and then that phone call came, it's given me clear guidance on where I sit going into the summer here. I've always wanted to play Test cricket.

"I felt like it maybe got to a stage where I was starting to obviously get on this franchise circuit and I didn't want to get pigeon-holed as a franchise player. That's the reason why I didn't put myself in for the IPL auction, because I want to play Test cricket. That's always been my main focus. It's clear guidance: if I score runs for Notts, hopefully I can put my name in the hat."

^{Clarke is back in the draft for The Hundred ahead of this summer (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

While more Championship matches in high summer could mean more jumping between T20 and four-day matches, Clarke says he has learned lessons from the start of 2022. He now prepares in a way that keeps his red-ball game fine-tuned. The demands of batting at No.4 in Championship cricket and opening in a Blast game are pretty divergent – especially at Trent Bridge.

"I remember when I first started, we'd have a T20 game on a Friday and start a Championship game on the Sunday. You sort of get used to that.

"But last winter, when I spent the whole winter away playing white-ball cricket, and it took me longer to get back in and find my rhythm in Championship cricket. I got back quite late, didn't have much of a pre-season and sort of got thrown out into playing red-ball cricket and I was still in a white-ball T20 mindset, and kept thinking I wanted to hit the bowler back over his head when he was coming in with a red ball. I was definitely in a bad mindset for that.

"I've had conversation with [Nottinghamshire head coach] Pete Moores here and we've got a good training plan; basically that when I'm away playing white-ball competitions, I still do stuff in my training that allows me to make that jump easier, that transition back into red-ball cricket."

However, he can foresee a future – with white-ball competitions spiralling the world over – of English players turning their backs entirely on first-class cricket. That despite comments from some prominent commentators and coaches that a lack of red-ball basics to fall back on has hurt the likes of Tom Banton, to name just one example, when he has gone through a bad trot in white-ball cricket.

"I definitely think it's going to get tougher for lads younger than myself and the next generation after that, because it's lucrative to play in these competitions. If you don't feel like you're close to an England side then the next best thing is to play all these franchise competitions and there's so many opportunities now.

"The time spent working on your longer format of the game goes out of the window because you're travelling to Australia, Pakistan, Dubai, wherever, playing all these competitions. I guess you've got to choose the path you go down.

"There's probably going to be people pigeonholed as white-ball or red-ball players. For me it's a three-format game: four-day, one-day and T20. I've tried to be a player to suit all those formats. Some lads might not be as successful at one or other. But when you're in a bad run of form you’re in a bad run of form – no matter the format.

"From my personal point of view, my main thing is to play for England. I feel like in white-ball cricket, playing franchise competitions will enhance that.

^{Mo Bobat called Clarke ahead of the West Indies series to inform him that he was on standby (Tony Marshall/Getty Images)}

"Ultimately, hopefully, ideally, I'd be playing less and less in franchise competitions by playing the longer format of the game and hopefully playing Test cricket.

"I can't speak for players younger than me. But it's definitely getting towards [players turning their backs on red-ball cricket]. Lads grow up watching IPL and see that as maybe level with international cricket and potentially that’s going to get more and more the case.

"It doesn't bother me, personally. It will obviously bother the traditionalists who enjoy the longer format of the game, but I just think there's so many opportunities for lads in franchise cricket."

While that sentiment will wound those who love red-ball cricket and believe it has qualities the white-ball game lacks, it is undeniably the case that the Vitality Blast and The Hundred have given youngsters such as Will Smeed – who has yet to play first-class match for Somerset – a fast-track to fame and glory the world over.

Clarke says: "We've had lads in England who've made a name for themselves in The Hundred competition who've then had a winter of franchise cricket, without playing a first-class game. That would definitely not have happened when I first started.

"I was saying: 'Who's this Will Smeed?' and all of a sudden he's smacking overseas players around Edgbaston [for Birmingham Phoenix] and now he's playing franchise cricket and is now a name you guys are talking about. And without that Hundred, potentially you wouldn't have that."

As for Clarke himself, he is set to attract attention in the Hundred draft, the results of which are due on Tuesday, in the highest salary brackets. He played for Manchester Originals in the first season, scoring 127 runs at a strike-rate of 151, but chose to leave the side and re-enter the draft this year, in order to make himself available as a wicketkeeper to other teams. That could clear a path to him being picked up by Trent Rockets – who selected lots of Notts players last year – or possibly Welsh Fire, with Jonny Bairstow expected to be needed for the Test series against South Africa during part of The Hundred.

Clarke says: "I just wanted to keep wicket in that competition, and obviously you've got the best wicketkeeper in the world in my opinion [Jos Buttler] at Manchester. It's another string to the bow, keeping wicket. They could still pick me up I guess! They still have that right to retain so I could end up back there. There's so many factors; that's the nature of a draft. We'll have to wait and see."

^{Nottinghamshire are back in Division Two this season despite an impressive campaign last year (Jacques Feeney/Getty Images)}

It's a sign of the times – and journalists' own priorities, to be fair – that consideration of Notts' chances in the County Championship only crops up at the end of the interview. Despite being the East Midlands financial powerhouse and favourites for the Blast, Notts start their Division Two campaign at Hove on Thursday.

Notts are essentially paying the price for a dreadful record in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – 1,043 days without a first-class win. Such was their upturn in form in the conference format last year that Notts fell just five points short of winning the 2021 Championship title.

But with the ECB returning to the status quo ante of two divisions pre-pandemic, Notts are tasked with extricating themselves from an eight-team Division Two. The club were notable (and predictable) dissenters when it came to voting for an immediate return to two-division cricket.

"There was a few angry emojis on the group chat when we found that [we would be in Division Two]. Last year we beat Essex, Somerset, Lancs – all these Division One clubs, so we felt like we’d have been in that top league however it was going to be run. But the main aim is obviously to win Division Two and get back up there.

"I didn't get too much inside on what the plans were. That's for Mooresy and Mick [Newell, director of cricket] to sort out. We found ourselves in Division Two and there's some pretty good sides there. Every team has their strengths, so we'll have to play well as a team. But we have some confidence from last year and hopefully we'll find ourselves lifting a trophy and get back up to where we should be sat with this structure."