Wednesday, 26 November 2014 00:00
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Reuters: Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland will grill Michael Clarke and national team selectors after a bizarre breakdown in communication over the injured captain’s availability for the first test against India next week.
Selectors on Monday named the injured skipper in a 12-man squad for the Brisbane test with the proviso that he play a two-day tour match against the tourists starting on Friday to prove his fitness. Hours later, Clarke, battling to recover from a hamstring injury, said he had already been ruled out of that match by the team’s medical staff and said he intended to prove his fitness by playing for his Sydney club on Saturday.
The confusion grew late on Monday when Cricket Australia (CA) issued a statement siding with the selectors, and reiterating that Clarke needed to turn up for the Adelaide tour match.
CA chief executive Sutherland told Fairfax Media on Tuesday he would investigate the breakdown.
“I will speak to Michael and others who have been involved in the process to make sure I understand where these things have gone awry,” Sutherland said.
“It’s not really appropriate for me to go into any more detail.
“All I can say is I am concerned that there are some mixed messages coming out of Cricket Australia in the last 24 hours or so. “I want to understand why things have fallen off the rails a bit there.”
The controversy follows a public spat between the captain and his coach Darren Lehmann, a member of the four-man selectors panel, over the omission of Steven Smith for a one-day match against Zimbabwe which Australia lost in August.
Clarke was publicly upbraided by Lehmann for criticising the selectors’ decision to overlook the middle order batsman.
