Seriously? No Way!

He is the preordained second-most-powerful-man-in-Australia. At the very least, one could reasonably expect him to be near the forefront of thought leadership of the patch he prowls. At a bare minimum, he should understand the tactics, temperament and tempo demanded by various formats of our great game. I thought all this to be reasonably reasonable, until I stumbled upon this gem. Michael Clarke believes an attacking approach may be required to succeed at T20 cricket. No frickkin way! You can't be serious! Surely not!

That I believe Cameron White to be the best man to assume the throne on Ricky Ponting's departure is no secret. Michael Clarke's upbringing in the scarecely-intellectual western suburbs of Sydney has not an iota of influence on my line thinking. Nor does his questionable former choice for life partnership. Hell I'm even willing to forgive and forget that he was allegedly instrumental in shunting into oblivion the single most talented all-round cricketer that Australia had (until then) produced in the last 2 decades. My preference for White over Clarke has everything to do with the fact that Mick just doesn't have it all together upstairs.

Clarke, IMHO, is all emotion and no intellect. He's perfect as a member of the leadership team to raise spirits when the chips are down (and somewhat irrelevant when matchfixing scum from the opposition are at work). He's great at slip, gully, cover and any other location the ball may travel on a cricket field. I'm sure he also has the nous to offer a nugget or two of great intelligence (of the informational, rathen than intellectual variety) to the captain of the day. But, more than anything, this latest gem proves that the bloke is a step or two behind where he ought to be.

However, as a Team India fan, it is with much glee that I realise that the wise men who staked their cricketing reputations on Clarke's leadership abilities will not revoke their decision. They have invested far too much in Mick for an admission of failure to even enter their minds. Here's to imagining what could have been of the Aussies had they been provided the leadership their talents deserve and demand.

RIP the records of the next generation of Australian cricketers unfortunate enough to suffer under the captaincy of Michael Clarke.