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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25014355-5017479,00.html
Clarke not up to job he wants so much
By Paul Kent
February 06, 2009 12:00am
MICHAEL Clarke is unable to mask his ambition to captain Australia. He wants the job too much - which by definition questions his right when the time comes.
His altercation with Simon Katich in the SCG dressingroom, reported on the back of today's newspaper, is the latest incident that questions his credentials for the job.
It came after he gave teammates the hurry-up during the rendition of Under The Southern Cross I Stand. He had an appointment he wanted to keep with girlfriend Lara Bingle.
The Australian team is fracturing because of ongoing catfights among wives and girlfriends.
A blue between wives and girlfriends on the 2005 Ashes tour splintered team harmony, the unspoken undercurrent to Australia's stunning series loss.
In India this summer, a tour when Australia needed its vice-captain to get in and help pull the team up, rumblings instead went around about Clarke's absence.
He was having prolonged breakfasts and lunches with Bingle.
Missing In Action.
He spent the night at the Allan Border Medal kissing Bingle like a lovestruck teenager.
His distraction highlights his immaturity for the captaincy job, and the fact it is coming at the cost of performance exacerbates it.
So his disrespect for team protocol following the SCG Test, to hurry up the celebration so that he could leave and join his girlfriend, has angered many.
It destroys the dressingroom culture that has been so vital to Australia's ethos.
As every recent player is not allowed to forget, it was on the back of this restoration in pride - Under The Southern Cross I Stand - that Australia rebuilt itself from the horror years of the 1980s.
Clarke is media-savvy, with the cool looks and the hot girlfriend, the tattoos, the slick image and flash car.
Together, the package is near-perfect for the job. Yet what he doesn't have is the man.
Former Test captains are openly appalled by Clarke's desire for Ricky Ponting's job.
They believe it is disloyal to Ponting, some even believing he should be sacked as vice-captain because of it.
After a particularly long day in the field against South Africa in Melbourne, for instance, he was asked why Australia didn't bowl Katich.
"Ask the captain," he said, "I don't make the bowling changes."
A weak-willed response, it was seen by former greats as a deliberate affront to Ponting.
Little instances all, together they suggest Clarke has not shown he is ready for the role. Still enough remains of the guy who was in a dust-up at Northies, with former Parramatta halfback Tim Smith, to cause concern.
The guy who labelled West Indian Chris Gayle a "second-class citizen", which had enough racial undertones to provoke Gayle to action. They had to be separated.
Anybody can become involved in an incident - Ponting had his own outside the Bourbon - but where Ponting quickly distanced himself, portraying a new maturity, enough of Clarke remains to suggest it could happen again.
In the Australian culture, the Test captaincy is second only in esteem to the office of Prime Minister.
Some put it above that, and not because it pays better.
Clarke is the boy most likely, there's no doubt.
But as Australia face a sensitive decision as to wives and girlfriends for the upcoming Ashes tour, it might finally be time for him to lead the way.
Clarke not up to job he wants so much
By Paul Kent
February 06, 2009 12:00am
MICHAEL Clarke is unable to mask his ambition to captain Australia. He wants the job too much - which by definition questions his right when the time comes.
His altercation with Simon Katich in the SCG dressingroom, reported on the back of today's newspaper, is the latest incident that questions his credentials for the job.
It came after he gave teammates the hurry-up during the rendition of Under The Southern Cross I Stand. He had an appointment he wanted to keep with girlfriend Lara Bingle.
The Australian team is fracturing because of ongoing catfights among wives and girlfriends.
A blue between wives and girlfriends on the 2005 Ashes tour splintered team harmony, the unspoken undercurrent to Australia's stunning series loss.
In India this summer, a tour when Australia needed its vice-captain to get in and help pull the team up, rumblings instead went around about Clarke's absence.
He was having prolonged breakfasts and lunches with Bingle.
Missing In Action.
He spent the night at the Allan Border Medal kissing Bingle like a lovestruck teenager.
His distraction highlights his immaturity for the captaincy job, and the fact it is coming at the cost of performance exacerbates it.
So his disrespect for team protocol following the SCG Test, to hurry up the celebration so that he could leave and join his girlfriend, has angered many.
It destroys the dressingroom culture that has been so vital to Australia's ethos.
As every recent player is not allowed to forget, it was on the back of this restoration in pride - Under The Southern Cross I Stand - that Australia rebuilt itself from the horror years of the 1980s.
Clarke is media-savvy, with the cool looks and the hot girlfriend, the tattoos, the slick image and flash car.
Together, the package is near-perfect for the job. Yet what he doesn't have is the man.
Former Test captains are openly appalled by Clarke's desire for Ricky Ponting's job.
They believe it is disloyal to Ponting, some even believing he should be sacked as vice-captain because of it.
After a particularly long day in the field against South Africa in Melbourne, for instance, he was asked why Australia didn't bowl Katich.
"Ask the captain," he said, "I don't make the bowling changes."
A weak-willed response, it was seen by former greats as a deliberate affront to Ponting.
Little instances all, together they suggest Clarke has not shown he is ready for the role. Still enough remains of the guy who was in a dust-up at Northies, with former Parramatta halfback Tim Smith, to cause concern.
The guy who labelled West Indian Chris Gayle a "second-class citizen", which had enough racial undertones to provoke Gayle to action. They had to be separated.
Anybody can become involved in an incident - Ponting had his own outside the Bourbon - but where Ponting quickly distanced himself, portraying a new maturity, enough of Clarke remains to suggest it could happen again.
In the Australian culture, the Test captaincy is second only in esteem to the office of Prime Minister.
Some put it above that, and not because it pays better.
Clarke is the boy most likely, there's no doubt.
But as Australia face a sensitive decision as to wives and girlfriends for the upcoming Ashes tour, it might finally be time for him to lead the way.
