Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle. Photo / Getty Images
Australian cricketer Michael Clarke's engagement to model Lara Bingle is reportedly on the rocks - as claims surface he was up close with a mystery brunette at a popular Auckland nightclub last weekend.
A woman who was partying with friends at Pony Club at 5am on Sunday said she spotted
Clarke, fast bowler Doug Bollinger and two other members of the Australian squad celebrating their one-day cricket victory over the Black Caps.
Clarke was dancing with a brunette, whispering in her ear and with his hands around her.
"They were in a back corner of the dance floor. He looked in control and having a good time."
The woman said she and her friends left the club before the cricketers.
Clarke abruptly quit the Australian squad, and their tour of New Zealand, on Monday night, to be alongside Bingle.
The Daily Telegraph in Sydney yesterday said Clarke was "confused and lost" and was poised to dump the 22-year-old model, who hit the headlines last week after a naked photo of her was leaked to a women's magazine.
Vice-captain Clarke, 28, was granted indefinite leave and has spent most of the past two days holed up with Bingle at the couple's A$6 million ($7.8 million) apartment at Bondi Beach. She was spotted yesterday without her engagement ring, worth $200,000.
News.com.au reported Clarke was increasingly distressed and angry with the "off-field" media attention, which has intensified since Bingle joined up with celebrity agent Max Markson.
The website also cited unnamed sources saying Bingle was resigned to the likelihood Clarke may ask her to move out.
The photograph in question, snapped four years ago when Bingle was having an affair with married Aussie Rules footballer Brendon Fevola, has prompted Bingle to start legal proceedings against her ex-lover and negotiate a lucrative right of reply in the same women's magazine.
