Richie Benaud has backed besieged Michael Clarke to succeed Ricky Ponting as Australian Test captain despite reports of dressing room dissent and a worrying string of pre-Ashes losses. So has another former great, Neil Harvey, but mainly because he sees no alternatives.
“I see no reason why Clarke, the vice-captain shouldn’t take over from Ponting, the captain,” said Benaud.
“Any time a team is getting beaten there are always concerns.
“But Michael Clarke will be vice-captain when Ponting comes back (after missing Wednesday’s one-day loss to Sri Lanka in Melbourne).
“I wouldn’t do anything that might suggest to England that there is any sort of panic in the camp,” said Benaud, describing this summer’s Ashes visitors as a very strong and well-balanced team.
“It may be that the next innings he (Clarke) plays will be a century, in the same way as he made one in India only two and a half weeks ago.
“And no-one was saying then that Clarke should go.”
Benaud dismissed press reports that unnamed senior players remain firmly opposed to the idea of Clarke taking over the captaincy from 35-year-old Ponting.
“I would like to think that if that’s the way some cricketers in the team feel they would be honest enough to put their names to it,” Benaud said.
“Otherwise I’m not interested.”
Australia have not won in any form of the game since beating Pakistan in England in July, then enduring a dismal tour of India.
Clarke was in charge for Wednesday’s astonishing loss to Sri Lanka, the visitors overtaking Australia’s 239 despite looking down and out at 8-107.
It was Clarke’s sixth straight loss as captain since May.
His overall record in one-dayers and Twenty20 internationals is 12 wins and five losses in each form of the game.
Another great of the 1950s and 60s, all-rounder Alan Davidson, came to Clarke’s defence, saying: “He had problems (against Sri Lanka) because the bowlers were bloody awful.
“I don’t know how you can bowl wides in a match.
“I never bowled a wide in my life.
“There’s no excuse for that sort of thing.”
Clarke has been groomed as Ponting’s heir apparent for years, but press reports suggest the anti-Clarke camp has been promoting several other candidates including middle order batsman Marcus North.
Neil Harvey wouldn’t even have North in his team.
“He’s on the wrong side of 30 and I don’t think there’s a big future in him,” said Harvey.
“I would get rid of North and (Michael) Hussey, both of them. They’re all getting too old.”
Harvey suggested Clarke could succeed Ponting as captain virtually by default.
“He (Clarke) is not going too well,” Harvey said, “but I’m trying to figure out who else can do it, and I can’t find anybody else.
“I just can’t see a successor after Ponting that’s going to do a great job.
“When you try to analyse it all, the forces on the ground are a bit thin aren’t they?”
Asked about reports of player dissent over Clarke, Harvey said: “Everybody should be behind the captain.
“If they’re not, there’s got to be something wrong somewhere.
“They seem to be dropping their bundle a bit because they haven’t won a game for so long.
“That has demoralised them, I think, but they’ve got to forget that and get on with the business.”
Harvey nevertheless predicted a 3-1 Ashes win for Australia this summer.
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