Michael Clarke is a toxic piece of shit

Fire away , Ponts

From the test match thread.

Can we have a thread on Clarke and his flaws as a person and cricketer. Fark me his vendetta against people he doesn't like and his power to keep them out of the team.

Plus stats on his captaincy failures.

Fark me I thought he would have been better than Ponting as a captain but he is showing fark all at the moment to prove it.

I used to stick up for him because he was from the roughest of rough South Western Suburbs of Sydney. But coming from that background has not made him a better cricketer.

He holds grudges. He has a chip. He thinks it is us vs them.

He is a fraud.

I provide cut rate effigies, made by caring hands and in an eco-friendly environment right here in New Delhi.

Chapelli rates his captaincy skills.

taipan wrote:Chapelli rates his captaincy skills.

(I recognise the sarcasm)

He makes a lot of "unusual" decisions in the field. Occassional one comes off. To the idiot, that would appear to be inspired rather than a result of the 1000 monkey threorem.

Even more surprisingly, some people take notice of what that sort of idiot says.

G.Wood wrote:

taipan wrote:Chapelli rates his captaincy skills.

(I recognise the sarcasm)

He makes a lot of "unusual" decisions in the field.  Occassional one comes off.  To the idiot, that would appear to be inspired rather than a result of the 1000 monkey threorem.

Even more surprisingly, some people take notice of what that sort of idiot says.

In a moment of masochism yesterday I read a Chappelli Cricinfo article wherein he explained why Clarke was a far better captain than Cook.

Australia lost the key moments of this test

the start of day three when they were 5 down with the last 1.5 recognised batsmen at the crease and about 12 runs behind ...both were out before the score was passed ...and the tail wagged minimally to give a 30 run lead

When Bell and Prior went in successive balls the poms responded with a flurry of boundaries and added enough runs to put them into a comfortable position

Oz folded from 1-120 to all out for another 100ish

If the Test was a boxing bout then Oz would have led on points with a steady stream of low impact body shots but been knocked out by the 3 or 4 big punches thrown

That's down to coaching/captaincy/management ...and Clarke needs to take responsibility for it

Clarke is completely the wrong captain for this time in Australian cricket. We all know who should be leading this Aussie side.

Clarke takes over the captaincy from Ponting, Katich is dumped. Ponting retires and Hussey abruptly goes with him. Now they have absolutely no leadership alternatives in this team.

Maybe Chris Rogers?

Bailey

embee wrote:Bailey

Needs to at least get a go in the middle order first. Voges is another one.

Would Clarke be tolerable in this team as a player only? The ego would take a huge beating if he was stripped of the captaincy.

embee wrote:Bailey

Bailey as the specialist captain, void of batting or bowling skills...I spose we already have the specialist fielder, the specialist aunt sally, the token schoolgirl so why not have Bailey...it would add to the humour...

the facts are this side - some honest toiling bowlers aside- would struggle to beat what was the previous worst Australian teams I have seen - ie the teams of 30 years ago

Clarke is not the problem...the problem is the absence of batting talent

horace wrote:

embee wrote:Bailey

Bailey as the specialist captain, void of batting or bowling skills...I spose we already have the specialist fielder, the specialist aunt sally, the token schoolgirl so why not have Bailey...it would add to the humour...

the facts are this side - some honest toiling bowlers aside- would struggle to beat what was the previous worst Australian teams I have seen - ie the teams of 30 years ago

Clarke is not the problem...the problem is the absence of batting talent  

And one argument is that this side would have a lot more batting talent were it not for Clarke and the friction he has a habit of creating in the dressing room.

Speaking of leadership.

Where has the vice captain been all series?

Too busy fumbling his way around to even think about team unity.

Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

Paul Keating wrote:Speaking of leadership.

Where has the vice captain been all series?

Too busy fumbling his way around to even think about team unity.

I had to think for a while before I even remembered who the vice captain is. He is rubbish at recommending a review. He shrugs his shoulders in a "why not" way, which is not what DRS is for, and invariably it's a silly review.

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

Some might say Clarke was the divisive element

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

Horace was a dribbling, bitter old shit.

was?

Continuing in the past tense that horrie was using.

This thread is a giant load of cobblers.

I was a huge Clarke-skeptic before he became captain. Hell, I was even flirting with the "Cam White as specialist captain" crowd for a while there.

But this backlash against Clarke right now strikes me as emotional panic. Other nations used to do it when they got pumped by Australia a decade ago. The batting would collapse and everyone would jump on the captain, as though he was responsible for them all being crap.

Ponting and Hussey had to retire at some point. They are both 38 for Christ's sake. Clarke didn't force them out of the team. They got old.

Hussey wasn't batting like someone who got old.

There is no doubt that the Aus squad is split down the middle. I suppose that is Arthur's fault as well.

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

When Hussey is 80 years old and is a dribbling incoherent mess (a bit like someone else I could mention) he would still be a better batsman than Smith will ever be.

Basil wrote:

horace wrote:Hussey was in decline and was tired...fleas never had the talent and was a divisive influence in even the dubber dressing room

When Hussey is 80 years old and is a dribbling incoherent mess (a bit like someone else I could mention) he would still be a better batsman than Smith will ever be.  

Yeah, well horrie must the only person on the planet who rates Warner higher than Katich.