Is Michael Clarke captaincy material?

Clarke is being groomed for captaincy role in Aus after Ponting. I see him as misfit in this role. Though based on his performance, he is certainity to be part of Aus team, but he seems to be pretty selfish person who likes to put himself before his team.

Clarke was responsible for Symonds being sent back when he went for fishing. This was his first full series as Captain and he was clearly trying to assert himself as the decision making authority. This was ostensibly done because Symonds had broken team discipline and his team members were feeling let down and some action should have been taken. Well done!!!

Aus team have a tradition of team anthem and after Sydney test, who was keen to leave the dressing room to attend to personal matters. Pup did not think about letting down his team mates but was looking at the clock to make sure his personal commitments do not suffer. What an example of mate-ship?

In the recent series against NZ, Clarke showed what he puts first - his record or team's result. He decided to open after being made the captain and batted to make sure he gets a big score to show he is ready for the big role. His slow batting ultimately helped NZ to restrict Aus to manageable total and they won from there. Had Aus won, the headlines would have screamed that the new leader has ensured Aus win and he should be appointed captain immediately. The final result, hopefully, would have sobered him a bit.

Clarke at least meets some of the criteria for qualification as Aus Captain - claiming one-drop catches that is. Be it Waugh or Ponting, they always claim one-drop catches and ask fielder's word to be taken for contentious catches. In thsi regard, at least, Michael Clarke satisfies criteria to be Aus Captain.

One more victim of IPL

Last year, Andrew Symonds was the highest paid foreign cricketer in IPL and see where he is currently - not fit to be part of most important series that Aus is going to have in recent times where their #1 ranking is on the line. Last year would rank among the most tumultuous for Aus Cricket in general and Symonds in particular. No doubt, Symonds had some record earlier also but that does not compare with his infringements last year since he became the highest paid cricketer in IPL - skirmish with Clarke in WI, fishing incident, Pub incident and radio talk.

This year the honour of being the highest paid cricketers goes to Flintoff and Pietersen and results have started coming in. Eng lost the first test miserably to WI. Even before the series there were spats between the captain and coach (both ex now) once it was clear that KP would be among the top money makers in IPL. Would we see the same trend as last year?

Looking at the behavior of Symonds and now English cricketers, my respect for Indian cricketers esp Sachin Tendulkar has increased mani-fold. If this is how cricketers get affected by money in cricket then imagine how well Sachin has coped with this distraction for last nearly 20 years. He has been getting this kind of adulation and attention since the time he started playing international cricket but this has never got into his head unlike some of the cricketers and he has been among the most consistent batsmen. Not only Sachin but other Indian cricketers have been getting similar distractions but hats off to them that we do not see such negative press covergae for them except for a few.

What happened to Australian Cricket System?

For past decade, there have been lot of comments about how good Aus cricket system is, that they have professional cricket system with strong academies for learning, competitive domestic cricket and administrators who were way ahead of others in terms of cricket management and coming up with innovative ways to stay ahead of others and making sure Aus is #1 cricket team in the world. It was supposedly this system which kept Aus ahead of others in field.

Looking at current results, it seems there were two reasons for Aus' success - Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. All Aus captains of recent time had the luxury of calling upon services of these great bowlers whenever in trouble and these two delivered almost every time. They also created enough opportunities for batsmen to play without pressure and freely and there is palpable difference in batting records of same personnel after these two left.

After these two have left, the system, administrators, captains and other players are looking human and Aus will struggle to be among the top 3 cricket nations. One could understand the impact that absence of such players can cause to any team but the way rest of the people have behaved clearly shows Aus System is just like any other cricket system like we see in other countries.

Aus selectors first make Ponting rest for some ODIs and when the team loses the next ODI, they immediately ask him to get back. In the past we did not use to hear people raising concerns on teams being selected, now this is commonplace. In fact, the noise looks like pretty similar to what we used to see after India used to have an overseas series (Losing usually) and then teams being selected to for next series.

Though Ponting is among the best captains statistically but the decisions that he made during India and SA series shows him in very poor light. In the earlier days, all he used to do was throw ball to McGrath and Warne and they would make people call it a masterstroke but now decisions are far more complex. There are too many disciplinary discussions happening, Symonds, Katich-Clarke arguments showing team is not happy and there is no unity among the team. Players are looking mediocre and this is reflecting in on-field results also.

Though some people feel that Aus will emerge again as a strong power in cricket or they still are. The only reason that they will stay at top is that the standard of cricket is falling in most countries and there are not enough teams to challenge them. Only SA and India look to be places where cricket is thriving and Aus will be next to them.

Will Ricky Ponting be the same batsman?

Since the time McGrath & Warne retired, not only has the aura around Aussie cricket team diminished but also there is one more casualty that has not been noticed much and that is - Ricky Ponting's batting form. He has averaged way below his career average since Ashes 07 and he averaged way more than his career average in years 2005 & 2006.
This is true that Aus has mostly played against India since then and Ponting averages poorly against Indians. Still the dip is significant (avg 45 as compared to nearly 60 earlier).
The difference could be due to team situation and additional pressure of ensuring higher totals in the absence of Mcgrath and Warne. He knows he does not have the bowling attack to get opposition out cheaply and thus takes less risk. Moreover with the retirement of Gilchrist and Langer, his team depends far more on him than ever before and he cannot score as freely as he used to. I believe once Matt hayden calls it a day, their would be further slump in Ponting's batting form. Aus is slated to play 14 tests over next 8-9 months and they will give us good picture of how he shapes up now.
Till some time back, it was taken for granted that Ponting would end up with most batting records when Tendulkar retires. He may still end up with some of them though those will be pretty hard to get on current form and if Tendulkar gets selective in playing matches and focuses on test cricket only, even those may become further difiicult.