Ashes 2010-11: Michael Clarke looks forward to captaincy challenge
As Australia’s captain for the fifth and final Test match of the Ashes series, Michael Clarke will be taking on perhaps the most difficult job in the world at the moment, as heated criticism of team Australia
continues after a wretched performance that has seen the baggy greens lose the Ashes on home soil for the first time in 24 years.
Clarke will be replacing the indisposed Ricky Ponting, who sustained a finger injury in the third Ashes Test in Perth. Ponting is to be rested during the final Test in Sydney so as not to risk aggravating the
injury so soon before the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which will begin in February.
Clarke, who took over from Ponting as captain of Australia’s Twenty20 side in October 2009, has been Ponting’s deputy in Test cricket for the past three years. While Ponting has been under fire for his struggles
with the bat during this year’s Ashes, Clarke himself has been criticized for his poor form. A recent poll by the Daily Telegraph, in Clarke’s home city of Sydney, revealed that over 85 percent of its readers did not want to see the 29-year-old in the role
of Test captain. Given that kind of popularity, Clarke is grateful to Cricket http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 for giving him a chance anyway.
“It's great to see the board and Cricket Australia continues to support me and give me this opportunity,” said Clarke. “For me it's about doing whatever I can to help this team win this Test match and level this
Ashes series.”
Clarke has been a failure in the series thus far, other than a fighting 80-run knock in the second Test match in Adelaide, which the hosts lost by an innings. His problems seem to have stemmed from his move to
number four in the Australian batting order. The right-handed batsman has managed only 322 runs in his last eight Tests since shifting from number five to number four in the order.
But Clarke’s unpopularity also has to do with his perceived “celebrity lifestyle” rather than just his current bad form on the field. Clarke was in the public eye for his relationship with Australian fashion model
Lara Bingle, which ended in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 2010.
“It's part and parcel of what we do now as a professional cricketer,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 said. “You spend a lot of time in the media, so for me I've copped criticism throughout my whole career and it's no different now.”
Meanwhile Clarke was all praise for Ponting, paying rich tributes to Australia’s leading Test and ODI run-scorer, who seems to have reached the twilight of his career and is speculated to be about to lose the
captaincy job for good.
“I've always said that Ricky Ponting has been my captain, my leader from day one and I'm certain he'll be back captaining ASAP,” Clarke said.
But Clarke, who has led Australia in 18 ODIs and 18 Twenty20 games, is also confident that he will be his own man as Australia’s 43rd captain when he leads the team at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“I've played nearly 70 Test matches with [Ponting] now, but again I'll be my own person like I have been when I've captained the one-dayers and Twenty20s,” he said.
Ponting, meanwhile, has expressed confidence in the newly appointed captain.
"When it's your turn to get out there and do the job with the bat or to do whatever you need to as captain, you pay full attention to that," Ponting said. “It's nothing new for Michael. He's been there and done
that and he'll enjoy the week.”
He also shot down rumours of there being any grumbling among the Australian squad regarding his appointment.
“All this dressing-room stuff that's been in the media and in the papers hasn't ever been around our rooms at all," said Ponting. “Everyone he's played with, and who will play under him this week, he'll have their
total support.”
The final Test match of the Ashes series is set to start at the SCG on January 2, and the Aussies are aiming to at least draw the series by recording a win at one of the most picturesque venues in the world. They
have been outplayed in two of the four Test matches, after drawing the first match at the Gabba (despite a great opportunity to win after gaining a 200-plus lead in the first innings). Drawing the series by winning at Sydney will not, of course, be enough
to retain the Ashes urn, which England (who were also last year’s Ashes winners) have already won by winning the third Test match.
Speculations are rife about Ponting’s withdrawal from the last Test, with the Australian media raising questions about how he was allowed to take the field in the fourth Test if his finger injury was really this
serious. Some sections of the media believe that Ponting has is being phased out of the team. Nevertheless, it is likely that Ponting will play in the 2011 Cricket World Cup in the subcontinent.
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