Australia's Michael Clarke will retire from international cricket after the fifth Ashes Test against England, starting on Thursday, with a brilliant record but strangely lacking the universal praise his figures might suggest.
Only three Australians have scored more runs than Clarke – who has battled a chronic back condition throughout his career – and the outgoing captain is also the only Australian to score a hundred on both his home and away Test debuts.
Yet Clarke won’t bow out with the kind of unstinting admiration his career would appear to deserve.
Clarke, nicknamed “Pup”, burst on the scene with a diamond studded ear-ring and highlights in his hair.
He soon became something of a lightning rod for Australians unhappy with aspects of modern Australia – and they were soon able to express their displeasure in that most modern of ways on social media, where Clarke’s relationships with former girlfriend Lara Bingle and now wife Kyly, both one-time models, were laid bare – often by Clarke himself.
“Michael was more your 21st century captain, he was single, he was flashier, lived a different life to some of us in the past, but that doesn’t make him a bad person, nor a bad captain,” former Australia skipper Mark Taylor told ESPNCricinfo when asked about Clarke.
But former Australia coach John Buchanan, in charge of the side for the first four years of Clarke’s international career, said the “baggy green culture” so highly prized when he was making his way in the side had “disappeared a bit” under the now 34-year-old’s captaincy.
Clarke confirmed he would retire immediately after England’s innings and 78-run win in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge earlier this month gave them an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match Ashes series.
The timing of Clarke’s announcement led to accusations that he had tried to make what should have been England’s day “all about him”, a criticism that was aired when he confirmed he would be quitting one-day internationals on the eve of Australia’s World Cup final triumph against New Zealand earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the fact that some people in and around the Australia team are vitriolic when talking about Clarke can’t be ascribed solely to jealousy.
After his debut hundred in Bangalore in 2004, which he completed wearing his baggy green Australia cap rather than his helmet, Clarke like many a young player before him saw his form dip.
He was soon facing the charge that he didn’t make “tough runs” and was also a “pet” of his friend, colourful spin-bowling great Shane Warne.
But starting with a superb innings of 329 not out against India in his native Sydney, 2012 marked a golden time for Clarke – who found himself in charge of an Australia side shorn of several great players including Glenn McGrath and Warne.
It eventually led the Sydney Morning Herald to say sorry to Clarke for comments about his lifestyle but, as cricket writer Jarrod Kimber observed: "To get a public apology all Michael Clarke had to do was score 329 not out, 210, 259 not out and 230 in one year".
But a 4-0 series loss in India led to charges that Clarke had been complicit in players being dropped for failing to write written reports about their performance – although the blame for “homework-gate” fell mainly on the then coach Mickey Arthur.
Clarke’s popularity was boosted by Australia’s 5-0 Ashes thrashing of England in 2013/14, while his magnificent 161 at Cape Town in a series-clinching win away to South Africa in March last year, after suffering a broken arm, was a superb example of making “tough runs”.
Off the field, he would win plaudits later in 2014 for the way he conducted himself after Australia batsman Phillip Hughes died after being hit on the head by a bouncer in a state match and for the moving eulogy he gave at his friend’s funeral.
The hundred he made against India in Adelaide after Hughes’s funeral was a memorable innings in the circumstances.
But with runs slipping away from Clarke, who has reached 25 just six times in his last 30 Test innings, the old charges against him soon resurfaced.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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