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Australian cricket's unanswerable question - that of who will succeed
Michael Clarke - has suddenly become one the national selectors must
ponder ahead of the Boxing Day Test after the captain was forced to
retire hurt with a hamstring injury on day four in Hobart.
Clarke had made a rapid-fire 57 when he complained of tightness in his
right hamstring, forcing the team physio Alex Kountouris to make a quick
dash onto the field for consultation before it was decided that
Australia's leader could not continue. His exit contributed to the
hosts' loss of 9 for 146 after the openers Ed Cowan and David Warner
added 132. Clarke limped visibly when he led the team out for the start
of the fourth innings, underlining the precarious state of his fitness
for Melbourne.
The sight of Clarke being unable to continue batting, or resume his
innings when Australia were nine wickets down, was a truly unsettling
sight for the team. At 31, Clarke has been described as the one sure
thing in Australian cricket, and his loss to injury for any period of
time is the most telling blow the team could suffer.
In recent times the selection panel has shied away from facing the issue
of succession, reasoning that no-one at present is ready to accept the
responsibilities of the job or the expectations that it might be headed
in their direction. Prior to Ricky Ponting's retirement he was hinted at
by the national selector John Inverarity as the man most likely to
substitute as captain. Shane Watson, meanwhile, is the deputy and has
led Australia at limited-overs level, but his batting displays since
returning to the team have not exactly inspired confidence.
Australia's coach Mickey Arthur told ESPNcricinfo earlier this summer
that the panel was not yet sure that Clarke's eventual successor was
even a member of the current Test team. Concerns about a leadership
vacuum at the top of Australian cricket were such that the Tasmanian
captain George Bailey was parachuted in as Twenty20 captain earlier this
year.
"We have massive discussions, as a panel we continually talk about
that," Arthur said. "We're trying to pick leaders, we're looking for
leaders, and we do that as a selection panel all the time under John. We
have those discussions. When we're confident that we have a guy who has
A cemented his place in the team and B done well enough to warrant
being brought into the fold as a possible successor to Michael [we
will].
"I know one of Michael's goals is he doesn't want to leave it hanging.
He wants to blood the next Australian captain, but right at the minute
we're sitting with a team of players that are still trying to cement
their place in international cricket, so you wouldn't want to give them
the burden of appointing anybody as the heir apparent to the captaincy."
Last summer David Warner was elevated to be ODI deputy when Clarke also
suffered a hamstring strain, but speculation and confusion about whether
that made him an early heir apparent to other leadership roles had the
panel reconsider the role of vice-captain at the start of this summer.
When Watson was unavailable for the first two Tests against South
Africa, no deputy was named, with the understanding that Ponting would
lead should Clarke be indisposed.
"Last season we just looked at certain options," Arthur said. "It is
very clear to us at the moment that we don't want to give anybody that
extra responsibility, it's a tough enough game as it is, you don't want
to be giving the players any more responsibility. Once they've cemented
their place in the side and are going well and have shown a massive
amount of leadership qualities around the group, then we can look to
perhaps talk about succession planning in that area.
"It is probably just a little premature at the moment, but it is
something we do consistently talk about. We want to be really certain.
The vice-captain at the moment is Shane Watson and we haven't looked
past that at this stage."
The other short-term option to lead the team on Boxing Day would be the
37-year-old Michael Hussey. He has led Australia four times previously,
all in ODIs around the 2006-07 season, and was a losing captain on each
occasion.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
Feeds: Daniel Brettig
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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