Former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke says current skippers are losing their authority within the team structure to the detriment of the national side.
Clarke details his gripes in his recently released book ‘My Story’ and says the coach and management have too much power.
Clarke says his authority was diminished when Darren Lehmann took over as coach in 2013, pointing to the ODI tour of Zimbabwe in 2014 when he believed Steve Smith should have been selected but was ignored by team hierarchy.
“It is late in my life to accept such a sweeping change to the system … Pat Howard (head of team performance) comes from rugby where the coach runs everything, so he doesn’t see a problem,” Clarke writes.
“In rugby, the captain is the boss on the field and the coach is the boss off the field. Simple. But that’s not the way I see the game.
“… Cricket is not football and a coach can’t pull the strings in our game.
“I want to be accountable and so I want input.
“… Ian Chappell is saying to me, more and more, ‘The Win-Loss record goes against your name.’
“… There are a million and one things they have taken away from the captain so that I can focus on what happens on the field, but I want those things! I was not expecting to be moved down the food chain halfway through my captaincy. I feel the captain’s role is not something that stops at the boundary line as the things you do off the field flow directly into the things you do on it.
“None of my grievance is personal. I always liked Boof.
“… Mickey (former Australian coach Mickey Arthur) didn’t make a decision without asking me. That is what I am used to. But it’s different now. I still struggle to accept it.”
