Australia rebuild must begin in Sri Lanka: Clarke

Sydney, (AFP): Captain Michael Clarke said on Sunday Australia must begin their rebuilding to world number one status on next month’s tour to Sri Lanka.

Clarke, who replaced Ricky Ponting as Test skipper in March, leads Australia in five one-dayers and three Tests in Sri Lanka, while two Twenty20 internationals will also be played.

Australia are going through a painful transition period since being the leading Test and one-day nation and have lost their last two Test series against England and India and six of their last eight Tests.

Clarke said he was excited by the challenge of leading Australia into a new cricketing age.

“I’ve really enjoyed the last couple of months, to be able to help, with the support of Cricket Australia and our coach Tim Nielsen, to try and set up some strategies and plans for our future,” Clarke told television on Sunday.

“I’ve always said we’ve got a lot of talent in the Australian squad and we continually see that in domestic cricket in Australia.”

“I certainly don’t see any reason why we can’t improve and I think we need to start in Sri Lanka.”

“We know we need to do a lot of work. Every day we get out of bed our goal is to try and get better and we’ve started that.”

“We’ve had a couple of camps up in Brisbane at the Centre of Excellence that have been fantastic, we know it’s just the start, but we’re looking forward to what lies ahead.”

After the Sri Lanka tour, the Australians travel to South Africa and face visits by New Zealand and India in the Southern Hemisphere summer.

The Australian T20 squad will leave for Sri Lanka on July 30 while ODI-only players depart on August 5 and Test-only players leave on August 16.