How do you rate Michael Clarke as a captain?
By ram_cv
@ram_cv (16513)
India
March 8, 2013 5:25pm CST
When Clarke was first elevated to the post of the captain, I was very skeptical of his ability to be leader on the field. For starters, he is too impetuous in my mind to be a captain. Secondly, I think he feels that he constantly needs to do something to show that he is active.
And nothing so far in his captaincy reign has really made me change my mind. He has been unsuccessful in blooding in youngsters into the team. He has not been successful in putting in place a proper succession plan with the sudden retirement of Hussey out of the blue showing a clear lack of communication between captain and his one experienced player. Also, looking at the performance of the current lot, especially Watson, it seems that he is unable to lift the players to play around him. Of course, his own performance during this period with the bat has been impeccable. But that does not salvage his woeful captaincy. Of course, his crazy declaration at Hyderabad and his team's capitulation afterwards is just another pointer in the same direction.
How do you guys rate Clarke as a captain?
Cheers!
Ram
1 person likes this
4 responses
@amitjoamon (117)
• India
9 Mar 13
For me, i really can't compare him with any recent Australian captains. Be it - steve waugh, ponting, slater etc etc... No doubt he is a good individual performer like shane warne or Mcgrath, but i find him having lack of ideas in the field when he his team is in pressure.
@amitjoamon (117)
• India
10 Mar 13
My bad, i meant Mark Taylor. Who captained Australia before Steve waugh from 1994–1999.
1 person likes this
@thewonderboy (7501)
• India
9 Mar 13
In my opinion Michael Clarke was a good captain until this Indian tour. In this tour as a captain he was a complete failure. The decision to avoid Lyon in the second test was very poor I think. Anyway I am waiting to see his approach in the coming to test matches.
2 people like this
@amitjoamon (117)
• India
9 Mar 13
@thewonderboy - its really not about this series, if you analyze it closely you will see he won test matches when He and team were performing better. When there is a situation he has to apply some out of the box ideas, specially in pitches where his team is failing, he is short of ideas. Captaincy is all about taking his team to the end when they are in short of confidence, keeping Lyon out just after one match and even when Lyon was better than Bhajji :) shows his decision taking ability and maturity.
2 people like this
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
10 Mar 13
Yes, backing the players and getting the best of them is something which I have not seen Clarke able to do. He has Watson who has been very effective in the past tours, but just seems to be in poor shape this time around. Probably disinterested and not applying himself, but this is just what a captain needs to get out of his players.
Cheers!
Ram
1 person likes this
@asokavaradhana (257)
• India
10 Mar 13
Well,Clarke as a player is a boon for any team.Period.His captaincy should not be rated by one series or few matches.In fact, its kind of early.There are many captains who has done big mistakes.Ganguly taking fielding in Worldcup final,Azhar chose fileding in 96 worldcup,though the team was given information about the Eden pitch,Ricky ponting for unwanted run and gettin run out and thus the ashes.There are many.But the point is ,whether Clarke is learning from his mistakes and making for things.Is he able to get the best from the available resources.This young Aussies will have tough time in any series abroad unless its a weaker team.Clarke after big retirement of Ponting and Hussey has not had the best resources to get some help with runs.At hyderabad , i do not think it was crazy declaration,rather he tried to gamble with a total of 237.He knew even he did not he would lose the last wicket for anything less than 300-350 and Indians would be fresh and fine to take on that total.And with one inexperienced spinner, it was worth a gamble.But brooding players or for getting best, we need to wait for another year.Besides,he has been the best person at moment to lead Australia at this moment of time.Thanks!
