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At long last, Klinger earns place in the sun

It did not come in the format many may have originally expected, but Michael Klinger has finally earned that cherished Australia cap at age 36

More than two decades after announcing himself as a future Australia cricketer, Michael Klinger was understandably moved to tears when he belatedly got to make the phone call he feared he might never place.

To his wife Cindy in Perth, then to his father Bill in Melbourne and finally to his siblings with the news – conveyed to him in Adelaide and wrapped in a warm hug from his coach and fervent supporter, Justin Langer – that he was to be an international cricketer.

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Not as a Test match batsman, a calling that seemed his from the day as a 15-year-old he became the youngest to post a century in the notoriously combative top echelon of Melbourne grade cricket, and which firmed years later when named to lead his country’s under-19 team with Michael Clarke as his deputy.

But instead, in the helter skelter 20-over format that Klinger admits he had to recalibrate his technique to master, and has done so with such proficiency and consistency that he has finally earned that cherished Australia cap at age 36.

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Like the sun on its daily journey, Klinger has been heading ever west in search of the opportunity he increasingly saw fading like the dusk.

From Victoria, when Chris Rogers arrived from Perth to build his own late-in-life Test career, to Adelaide where he grew and blossomed as a leader, to Western Australia where he was thrown a life line by Langer and repaid that faith many fold.

Summer after summer he assembled a fresh set of credentials and placed them before the national selectors, only to be met with silent rebuffs and not so much as a plane ticket as a spare batter on any number of red and white ball tours.

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But those circumstances that had so habitually conspired against him since he took to the first-class arena as a teenager last century finally turned in his favour.

The scheduling of a T20 International Series at the same time as Australia’s Test tour of India was beginning meant vacancies at the top of a batting line-up that would otherwise have been filled by Warner, Smith, Khawaja and/or Handscomb.

Complemented by his match-defining 71 from 49 balls in last weekend’s KFC Big Bash League Final, and the post-match endorsement from Langer (who will coach Australia’s T20 outfit in Darren Lehmann’s enforced absence) that saw him nose out the BBL’s top runs scorer Ben Dunk for the job.

For someone so used to copping and absorbing the vicissitudes of a life lived in professional sport, it took a while for the scope of the achievement to take hold of Klinger once Langer had informed and embraced him.

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But it gripped when he made his first phone call upon wriggling free from his euphoric coach – to his wife Cindy, who has accompanied him throughout his epic westward career journey.

"I held back the tears to be honest until I spoke to her," Klinger told journalists today during the lunch break of a Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide where he was, fittingly, a not out batsman at the break.

"JL (Langer) gave me a big hug, and it was hard to keep the tears away after I spoke to her and then I called my brother and my dad and my sister.

"It was a moment that I wasn’t sure if it was going to come, and that half an hour when I got to speak to my family I will treasure forever.

"I couldn’t ask for anything more.

"It’s been 15, 16 years of hard work and it’s great to get some reward now.

"Timing’s right, it probably hasn’t been right at other times going along the years when other guys have been performing too.

"I’m just thrilled it went my way this time.

"I’m really happy for my family as well, obviously they ride all the waves with you and I’m really happy that they can get excited about it as well along with my teammates, coaches, and teammates and coaches from the past.

"It almost feels like it’s a great reward for them as well as for me."

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A hugely admired and respected figure throughout the Australia and international landscape given his feats at home and recently with Gloucestershire in the UK county championship, Klinger also took time to reflect on the call he was unable to make.

To his late mother Sue, who passed away in 2005 and who her son, the Australia cricketer designate, took a moment to acknowledge "how proud she’d be as well".

There is a certain irony that such a pedigreed batsman, who was cruelly denied a maiden first-class century as a 20-year-old when his then skipper Paul Reiffel declared Victoria’s innings closed with Klinger on 99, finally found his vehicle to national representation through the frenetic 20-over version.

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And that despite being the most senior (in years) and junior (in games played) member of Australia’s T20 squad, he sees his role as the battering ram at the top of the innings in order to draw fire away from more experienced (but younger) teammates Aaron Finch and Chris Lynn.

"You’ve got Aaron Finch opening the batting, possibly with me, and possibly with Chris Lynn batting at three so they’re probably the two strongest Twenty20 players going around in Australia,"Klinger said today.

"That might mean I’m an aggressor in a certain way and let them relax, play their natural game and take the scoreboard pressure off them.

"If I get the opportunity I’ll try to do that.

"I love playing cricket, in any format.

"I pride myself on my preparation physically, and making I sure I plan well before each game watching a lot of video footage of opposition and try and work out my match ups.

"Especially in Twenty20 cricket where every ball could be the difference in a game.

"I try to be meticulous in that sort of preparation and when I go out there I know I’ve done everything I can, and if it comes off it comes off.

"If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

"It’s exciting and I’m pretty pumped to be honest."

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In confirming Klinger’s halting but never quite stalled progression to the national team, interim selection panel chair Trevor Hohns pointed out the current squad was selected to win games against Sri Lanka in the absence of many Test players.

A number of whom, Hohns acknowledged, would be part of a full-strength Australia T20 line-up such as that chosen for the ICC World T20 tournament in 2020, when it will be staged for the first time in Australia.

And while he demurred on the likelihood of maintaining or targeting a berth in the national team for that event, by which time he’ll pushing 40, Klinger did suggest his time in cricket is far from done.

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Especially in the format that has now come to crown his career.

"I’m going to be playing cricket, Twenty20 in particular, for at least a couple more years," Klinger said today.

"And we’ll see what happens down the track."

A much-travelled path west that has just taken a most gratifying turn.