Michael Clarke named new Australian captain
After relinquishing his status as captain of Australia, Ricky Ponting yesterday opened the doors of opportunity for Michael Clarke to lead the mighty Australian cricket team. The appointment of Clarke as the skipper of Australia’s one-day and Test side has
now been made public while Shane Watson has been appointed as the vice-captain.
While speaking about his appointment as captain, Clarke said, “I just want to say what a honour it is to be named captain of Australia and a huge surprise to see Ricky stand down. I spent a lot of time with Ricky during the World Cup and I was very much
unaware of where he was it so it was a big surprise for me."
According to Cricket Australia (CA), Cameron White has been retained as the skipper of the of the Twenty20 side, since Clarke retired from the shortest version of the game after losing the fifth Ashes Test against arch-rivals England last year. Clarke suggested
that he wanted to play more Tests and One-day Internationals (ODI) instead of Twenty20’s. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 will also be the vice-captain of the Twenty20 squad as well.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 broke into the cricketing world with a magnificent 151-run knock in his Test debut against India in 2004. He then went on to score another century against New Zealand on home ground. Although he rattled the world of cricket by performing superbly
with the bat during the early days of his career, his form has hit rock bottom in recent months. He completely failed to impress with the bat during the Ashes series and flopped in the ODI series against England as well.
After the Ashes debacle there were rumours in Australia suggesting that Ponting and Clarke would both be shown the door from CA. However, CA has decided to give him the realms of the Australian national team, as he had been mentored under the outgoing skipper
Ponting.
Clarke will be tested greatly this year as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. If he fails to clinch victories, CA might start looking for his replacement sooner than expected.
Former skipper Ponting was also included in the team that will tour http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 as the veteran wants to play for Australia as a batsman.
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