Play with freedom: Clarke's message to Australian team during 2015 World Cup triumph

Former Australian cricketer Michael Clarke revealed his message to his teammates during the 2015 World Cup triumph saying that he asked the 'superstars' to 'play with freedom'.

"My message throughout the whole tournament was 'play with freedom'," Cricket.com.au quoted Clarke as saying.

"The thing about the squad we picked is we had so many superstars who wanted to be on the big stage," he added.

On this day, five years ago, Clarke rallied his troops to a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand which handed Australia its fifth World Cup title.

Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh featured in the winning squad led by Clarke.

Clarke said he wanted to allow those x-factor players to get on stage and show the world how good they are.

"There was a lot of big egos on the team and they wanted the bigger game, bigger crowd, bigger moment," Clarke said.

"For me it was about our training and preparation being so important because then all I wanted to do was allow these x-factor players - Faulkner, Maxwell, Warner, Starc, Smith - these superstars to get on stage and show the world how good they are, and that's what happened," he added.