For the last five years, around his many other cricket and media commitments, Michael Clarke has also co-hosted the Sky Sports Radio (formerly 2KY) Big Sports Breakfast show alongside former NRL great Laurie Daley and sports journalist Gerard Middleton (main picture left to right – Laurie, Michael and Gerard). After being inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame on January 23, Clarke has also announced his departure from radio to focus on his new podcast Beyond23.
Clarke started the podcast on November 28 last year, with his high profile seeing already thousands of followers for the six episodes released so far using the Spotify platform. What is particularly of note is that his radio show has strong affiliations with betting agency TAB. So too does the podcast – Beyond23 with Michael Clarke, presented by TAB.
I watched a brief portion of the latest episode which included a BBL final prediction with Clarke saying that Matthew Wade was Hobart Hurricanes’ captain, not Nathan Ellis. Which would suggest that Clarke hasn’t (yet) got a producer fact checking before commenting. For the record Clarke was right in predicting the Hurricanes to win, with the match last night the best BBL final I’ve watched.
Clarke told The Nightly of the podcast:
“I want to commit 100 per cent and give it everything I have. I also found it quite difficult last year trying to be in two places at once with my overseas work and radio, and it looks like I will be spending more time away for business moving forward.”
The Big Sports Breakfast Show returns to the air this week, with Clarke, now free of the BBL commitments, likely to turn up for a farewell. In the final survey of 2024 the show rated 2.2% Sydney audience share, up 0.3.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]