'Axed four haven't met standards'

Captain Clarke terms the situation unfortunate; a line-in-the-sand moment, says coach Arthur

While the extraordinary step of the Australian team management to axe four players for the third Test beginning here from Thursday might have caught everyone off guard, the harsh decision was waiting to be made, if one were to believe skipper Michael Clarke.

In a sensational move Australia left out four players – vice-captain Shane Watson, pacemen James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson and middle-order batsman Usman Khawaja – for the third Test for violating team management’s order which wanted all the players to make a presentation on how to improve their personal as well as the team’s performance after the innings and 135-run defeat in the second Test in Hyderabad. Australia, who trail the four-match series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 0-2, had lost the first Test by eight wickets in Chennai.

Following his sacking, a ‘shattered’ Watson left for Sydney though Cricket Australia maintained that the all-rounder flew back to be by his wife Lee Furlong ’s side, who is expecting the couple’s first child. Watson also indicated that he was contemplating to quit the longer version of the game.

High standards, Clarke pointed out in a syndicated column, of the team have not been maintained. “As Australian cricketers, we're expected to maintain the highest of standards. And in the case of the four players stood down from the third Test here in India, those standards have not been met. This was not an isolated incident. As a team over the past couple of months we have not reached the standards expected of us as Australian cricketers. This is the straw that broke the camel's back,” the captain pointed out.

Clarke had questioned his players’ attitude and commitment to improve as cricketers following the defeat in Hyderabad. “Our coach, Mickey Arthur, asked the team to take a few days after our loss in Hyderabad to think about their performances and report back with suggestions as to how they can help the team and turn the series around.
“It's not good enough for players not to have complied with those wishes and, quite frankly, it's disrespectful toward the coach. We need to uphold the highest of standards in this team and it's unfortunate we have reached this point.

Arthur while announcing the decision to drop the foursome said: “That’s a line-in-the-sand moment. We have given these guys absolute clarity. After Hyderabad the whole team was really hurting, we were discussing ways of getting back into the series. We were particularly aware of where we were as a team and how we were going to get back. I asked the players at the end of the game to give me an individual presentation.

“I wanted three points from each of them technically, mentally and team as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, how we were going to get ourselves back into the series. Unfortunately four players didn’t comply with that. We pride ourselves on attitude. We have given the players a huge amount of latitude to get culture and attitude right.

“We believe that those behaviours with what we want to do with this team, how we want to take this team to be the best in the world, teams that are the best in the world have best attitudes and best behaviour patterns and a good, hard, ruthless culture.

I believe those four players unfortunately did not meet my requirements so those four are not available for selection for this Test match,” he added.

In what is a clear collective decision of the coach-captain combine, Arthur said even Clarke felt that it was time to crack the whip after what has been a thoroughly disappointing series for the former world number one team. The embattled side from Down Under, however, got some breather when Brad Haddin, the cover for the injured stumper Matthew Wade, joined his team-mates on Monday.