Michael Clarke, a legend in cricket, discussed his infamous altercation with Jade Yarborough in Noosa in his Monday morning appearance on Big Sports Breakfast.

Gerard Middleton and Laurie Daley, Clarke’s co-hosts, made their first appearance this year, and Middleton said that the show wouldn’t be delving into the topic.

“It is a very, very private matter that Clarkey has obviously been dealing with, and sadly, it was made public.

“There are a lot of factors at play here,” Clarkey said. 

However, Middleton couldn’t help but ask Clarke about the hamstring injury he had on January 10 outside of a Noosa restaurant. A vision of the incident showed the 41-year-old man stumbling around with a bad limp.

“For weeks, you won’t be able to walk properly.”

Clarke shrugged off the injury, claiming that it was fine and that he was only thinking about the upcoming show.

The news comes as the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the BCCI was looking for another former player to take over as TV commentator for Australia’s upcoming Test series against India. The other former Australian player who is expected to be on the commentary team for the series, which starts next month, is Matthew Hayden.

Even though Clarke did not talk about his India commentary job on Monday morning, he did say that he had been approached to commentate on the upcoming Pakistan Super League T20 competition. This came just days after it was revealed that he was in danger of losing his six-figure job for Australia’s upcoming tour of India.

Clarke went on to talk about Australia’s summer of cricket, praising Australia’s performance while describing the Test series against West Indies and South Africa as subpar.

Clarke stated on Monday, “I thought the Aussies were brilliant, but South Africa’s batting was what I was worried about, I thought they were really poor.” However, once Australia got going, in these conditions, “we just got used to the pace of South Africa.”

But I thought South Africa’s batting was nowhere near good enough against Australia’s bowlers, but I think the Aussies deserve a lot of credit for how they played. 

When the veteran Daily Telegraph reporter appeared for Clarke’s segment, the Big Sports Breakfast regular Phil “Buzz” Rothfield’s cheeky jabs were too much for him to handle.

The two have argued a lot, most recently during a heated discussion about the Allan Border Medal, and on Monday morning, Rothfield took his first opportunity to gently poke fun at Clarke.

Clarke responded, I probably won’t be able to help you, so run for your life.

Rothfield went on: How was Noosa, then? I was going to put on my journo hat and inquire, but are you okay? No, I better not.

Clarke responded, “I’m fine, thanks buddy,” and the conversation moved on. Rothfield, on the other hand, made one more reference to the issue after that before concluding.

Ben Fordham, host of 2GB Radio, made more forceful remarks. He criticised Clarke for his lacklustre response after it was alleged that the cricket legend would address the issue during his return to the airwaves.

Fordham stated, “Michael Clarke was on radio this morning, and we had heard from journalists covering the story that he was likely going to address the incident.” However, the former Test captain remained silent.

“Clarkey had nothing to say—how cowardly are you? He had a microphone in front of him and was sitting in a radio studio; it was the story that everyone was talking about, and Clarkey squibbed it.

“Clarity, you fool.”

Mark Geyer and Mick Molloy of Triple M also took aim, claiming that Clarke had missed an opportunity to move on with the matter.

Molloy stated on Triple M’s Mick & MG in the Morning, “You can’t go ‘we’re not talking about it,’ and then go into detail about the hamstring.”

Geyer replied, “Now people will keep digging more.” He was a great rugby league player.

Concerning cricket, Clarke stated that he had long harboured concerns that South Africa would fail in Australia due to “their lack of experience batting in these conditions.”

The former Australian Test captain’s remarks on the radio were his first public statements since he offered an apology to The Daily Telegraph for the incident on Wednesday: I am broken by my actions and accept full responsibility for this altercation.

His apology came after a dramatic vision of Clarke’s girlfriend Jade Yarbrough accusing him of cheating.

After making his international debut in 2003, Clarke played for Australia in 115 Test matches and 245 One-Day Internationals.

The right-hander made 8643 Test runs, including 28 centuries and a career-high 329 runs without being run against India in 2012 at the SCG.

He was captain of Australia when they won the Ashes in 2013/14 and the World Cup in 2015.

According to a spokesperson for Tabcorp, which owns Sky Sports Radio and produces the Big Sports Breakfast, “the company doesn’t comment on the personal matters of its employees,” news.com.au reported.