Mark Taylor convinced sceptical Cricket Australia directors led by Matthew Hayden to rubber-stamp the appointment of Michael Clarke as the country's 43rd Test captain in the hours after Ricky Ponting's resignation, a new book reveals.
The subject of Clarke's leadership has been a topic of conversation in the upper reaches of Australian officialdom this summer after a fallout with selectors and senior members of management, and his good friend Shane Warne said at the weekend it should be Clarke and not coach Darren Lehmann who runs the team.
It has emerged that four years ago, when he was announced as Ponting's successor after the last World Cup, there was also uncertainty in the Cricket Australia board room over whether he was the right player to take the reins.
The book Whitewash to Whitewash, written by cricket journalist Daniel Brettig and released this week, explores the often tumultuous period in Australian cricket between the 5-0 series defeats of England in 2006-07 and last summer, and offers a fascinating insight into Clarke's ascent to the top job in 2011.
Since being appointed vice-captain in 2008 after the retirement of Adam Gilchrist, and then leading the team in Ponting's absence in the final Test of the 2010-11 Ashes series in Sydney, it had been assumed that Clarke had long effectively had the green light from the board to take over from the Tasmanian great whenever he stepped aside.
However, the book tells of a telephone hook-up of CA directors arranged to confirm Clarke's captaincy in the aftermath of Ponting's resignation in which concerns were raised about him by Hayden, with fellow board member Ian McLachlan saying the former opener's views should be heard.
Hayden is said to have argued against his former teammate, bringing up his "uneasy" relationship with Ponting, the perception of Clarke as a cause of trouble in the team, his exit from a tour of New Zealand to split with model fiancee Lara Bingle and his infamous run-in with Simon Katich as reasons to question Clarke's candidacy.
It even prompted a last-minute proposal by Victorian director Geoff Tamblyn for Cameron White, Australia's Twenty20 captain, to take over from Ponting instead, the book says, before fellow director Taylor intervened.
"Sure, he thinks differently to Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Matthew Hayden and so on, but that doesn't mean he's always wrong," Taylor says. "As a vice-captain you know what it's like, particularly if you're the vice-captain behind a very successful player as I had with Allan Border and I knew Michael would have had with Ricky Ponting.
"You say something that's against the grain, you're almost seen as 'You're not with us, and if you're not with us you're against us'. That's what I felt about that whole side. It got to the stage where you're either in the bubble or outside it. Michael wanted to be outside it he moves on his own to a certain extent but he also loves communicating. He doesn't want everyone to move in the same circles, but he wants people to be in touch all the time, which I think is great and how a representative cricket team should work."
Ponting questions in the book why board members had left it so late if they doubts about Clarke.
"How did it get to that, anyway?" Ponting says. "He's been the Test vice-captain for three years; he was the T20 captain before that; he's already captained Australia in a Test match. What had the board been thinking for three years? It should have been debated before that. Before I stood down there should have been some questions asked so they weren't left in that position."
There are also claims that the appointment of Shane Watson as Clarke's vice-captain was effectively made as an afterthought on the teleconference a decision that would backfire when that relationship would prove unworkable.
