And so it is that Michael Clarke is appointed our 43rd captain. The media make a deal of naming him as the new captain when the truth is they named him captain almost ten years ago.
His form of late has been barely good enough to keep him in the side yet is expected to improve with the added weight of the captaincy.
The question now has to be "How long will we accept poor performances from him with the bat now he has the excuse of captaincy to put up every time he fails?"
The organisation needed a Golden Boy to attract female followers and shimmy through the social pages and now he holds the second most esteemed position in the country.
Why ask current cricketers if they support him when they must tow the company line?
Once again a decision that is not better for Australian cricket but better for Cricket Australia.
Shouldn't they be the same thing?
Good post Nospmas, from my perspective as a Pommie not completely up to speed with these things, Clarke doesn't look like a good choice, but I can see the benefits from a media perspective and how that in the short term he will be good for Cricket Australia. Looks like your teams going to go through some pretty tough times in the next few years and none of it bodes well for the longer format of the game.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I've seen Clarke lead the side I think he's done very well. I agree with the appointment entirely. Granted there was precious other choices; Watson is a joke as vice captain in my opinion. You can't have childish allrounders as captains but there you go.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Aus may not have even reached the lowest ebb in test cricket but that is hardly Ponting's or Clarke's fault. I'm interested to see how a former captain still playing in the team goes; can't remember the last time that happened. I guess you could count the Hughes/Chappell era but that was Hughes making way for Chappell when Chappell felt like playing for his country.
I hope Ponting goes down to 5 and Kahawaja is a lock in at 3 for the next 2 years giving him a decent chance. Hussey could bat at 4 or 6 with Ferguson in the wings too. I'm more optimistic on the pace bowling fronts with a few goodies injured at the moment but my god we're stuffed in the spin department. I watched Doherty bowl in the shield final and it was far from being test standard I reckon. Did Krejza get any poles in the world cup? Are there any south africans not making the test team we can naturalise?
yeah, clearly i haven't said much but i must admit, i'm ok with the appointment as i think he is more of a complete cricketer than Ponting.
ReplyDeletei know this is well after the fact, but in the odi v Englang where Clarke put Jono in to bat up the order it showed me that Clarke was less formulaic than Ponting and more capable of trying to create something by unorthodox means. how he captains a spinner will show how deep he thinks... i only hope that with his gammy back he doesn't get sucked into bowling himself!