Michael Clarke to retire from domestic cricket

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has confirmed that he will not be making a comeback for the New South Wales cricket team in the upcoming Matador Cup. With this, he closes the door on all future doubts regarding future participation in the first class domestic league of Australia. The confirmation came from Clarke himself and news website news.com.au reported this moments later. The 34-year-old, it is reported, informed the club that he would be unable to devote four months to full-time training due to his “other commitments”.

“Michael has decided against returning to elite cricket with the NSW Blues,” confirmed a Cricket NSW spokesman in a statement to News Corp

Earlier this May, news of Michael Clarke's meeting with the club executives started doing the rounds which gave way to rumours of a highly anticipated return to this side. This decision also implies that Clarke will not be making an appearance in this summer's Sheffield Shield although it is expected that he might return to play in the Big Bash League.

Clarke, who in August 2015, had announced his retirement from all forms of cricket following a disastrous Australian campaign in the Ashes that year, returned to Sydney grade cricket in February this year. Since then, he has featured in the Hong Kong T20 Tournament in May 2016.

The Big Bash is a league Clarke has constantly refrained from participating in despite being contracted with the Sydney Thunder and the Melbourne Stars in the past. More recently, Sydney Sixers expressed a potential interest in him.

"We only have a few positions available on our roster and we are just working through our review process from last season. It's a long off-season so we will wait and see how things pan out in the coming months," Dominic Remond, General Manager of the Sixers, had told AAP.

The prolific right-handed batsman has 11 centuries in 44 games in the Sheffield Cup.

After retiring from all formats of the sport, Clarke looked to create a niche for himself in the corporate world, He embarked on a mission to take control of an investment company set up in his name. He owns half while the other half is owned by a trusted friend of his named Anthony Bell, a senior accountant.