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First the facts: Michael Clarke has been selected as the next Australian Test and ODI captain. Cameron White will captain the national Twenty20 side. Shane Watson is deputy captain in all three forms of the game.
What do these facts mean?
The two best writers on cricket, Gideon Haigh and Peter Roebuck, praised Ricky Ponting’s performance at the press conference yesterday when he announced his resignation from the captaincy of the Australian Test and ODI sides.
There was, one of them noted, none of the crankiness of a testy Allan Border, or the tears of a maudlin Kim Hughes.
Ponting made his case for remaining in the side as forthrightly as he has batted for Australia. And it needs to be remembered, again as the two writers pointed out, that Ponting is the greatest Australian batsman since Don Bradman.
He has scored 39 Test and 30 ODI centuries. And this was done batting in the driver’ seat of number 3. His runs were scored at a brisk rate: 59 runs per 100 balls in Tests and 80 per 100 balls in ODI.
As a captain he won 62 per cent of his Tests and 72 per cent of his ODIs as captain.
Ponting is a giant of Australian cricket. This needs to be remembered in the messy business that has surrounded his last couple seasons as captain. Future generations will revere him, as batsman, the way we do now for the other greats of the past.
But this is for future generations. Right now the issue is how he manages the rest of what should be only a couple more years in the Australian colours.
His time has been up as skipper for several years. He was reluctant to give away the captaincy (understandable given his pride in his achievements and the undoubted monetary rewards that come from holding down the job).
No matter what he says, he must have known that whether he liked it or not, his days as the skipper were over when India scored the winning runs to put Australia out of the World Cup tournament last week.
Clarke seemed to suggest at today’s press conference that Ponting will remain at number 3 in the batting order. If this is what he wants, then this is his first mistake as the new leader.
A new number 3 has to be found. In Australian teams, this is the pivotal position. Ponting’s powers are waning. A new champion needs to be given his chance. Ponting will be of best value to Australian sides, either in Tests or ODI, batting down the order, probably at number 5.
Although Clarke brings a fine batting record to his new job as Australian captain with a Test average of 46, he was in poor form during the last Ashes series. Has he passed his prime? He will have to score runs to justify his position. For the tried and proven Australian way is only select captains who are first choice players in the team.
The English concept of the captain-batsman in the Mike Brearley mode has never had much play in Australian cricket, and rightly so. It is actually a hangover from the days in county and Test cricket in England when only amateurs could be captain. Few of these amateur captains, especially in county cricket, were worth their place in their teams as players.
There is another aspect of the Clarke succession that has its problems. Has there been too much of a sense of entitlement in his promotion? The one sour note in Ponting’s press conference yesterday was when he talked about Clarke being the obvious choice as his successor. Then he went on to say how he’d sit in his corner being ready to help out with ideas and so on if the new leadership wanted to pick his brains over some matter.
These observations, to me at least, gave the impression that it was going to be a Clarke-Ponting new order after the old order of Ponting-Clarke. In other words, has there actually been a real change in the leadership?
Richie Benaud has endorsed Clarke (“he’s done well at the times he’s been captain”) as the new leader. He then went on to make this very interesting other point: “I’m interested in Watson because he’s a fine cricketer, a good thinking cricketer, but I think he’s got enough on his plate at the moment.”
Taking my cue from the great man of world cricket, I’d argue that the least the selectors could have done is made Watson the captain of the national ODI and Twenty20 sides.
Or if the selectors had really, really bold and far-sighted, they would have appointed Watson as captain of the Test and ODI sides.
The rationale behind this assertion is that the Ponting era is coming to an end. The Clarke-Ponting power nexus should really reflect this by being moved aside for the next generation of players to take Australian cricket through to the next cycle of Ashes series and World Cup tournaments.
The obvious leader for the next generation of Australian cricket is Watson, a player who is undoubtedly a first choice for Australia in all forms of the game.
And there is an historical precedent for this sort of shift of power and leadership to the the next generation to lift the status of Australian cricket sides in all forms of the game.
Let’s go back to 1958/59. The captaincy of Ian Craig was over and a new captain was needed. The candidates were (the obvious) Neil Harvey, a brilliant batsman coming to the end of his career and (the less obvious) Richie Benaud, a gifted all-rounder who had not quite fulfilled his promise but was showing signs of becoming a fine player.
It is history now that the selectors of the day picked Benaud. Benaud went on to become one of the great captains of Australia.
Watson has the potential to be a Benaud-like captain. But he needs to be promoted to captain of the national ODI side as soon as possible to find out whether he has what it takes to be the inspiring leader the new generation Australian cricket teams needs so urgently right now.