Selectors would have gone with Ponting if not for retirement: Michael Clarke

Former Australia skipper Michael Clarke has gone on to make a few shocking as well as sweeping revelations in his book – ‘My Story’. While some of his statements have shocked some of his former teammates as well as some of those who were presumed to be his friends, Clarke seemingly has not held back when it comes to spilling the beans on certain events that did, in fact, take place in during his time as Australian skipper.

In his book, Clarke revealed that John Iverarity, the chief selector at the time went on to write a mail to then Australian coach Mickey Arthur regarding the Australia skipper’s difficulties with the bat.

“Inverarity had emailed Mickey Arthur to say, “I have technical deficiencies and I am not the player I used to be”.

Michael Clarke further went on to add that Inverarity revealed to him that the Perth Test against South Africa in 2012 would be the last one for Ricky Ponting as skipper. The match saw Ponting score 4 and 8 respectively as well as receive a guard of honor from the South African players led by Graeme Smith.

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“John confides that the other selectors have made their minds up that Perth will be Ricky’s last Test match, whether he scores nought or a hundred,” ESPNcricinfo

Building on from the fact that he was a ‘terrible’ vice-captain, Ricky Ponting also had a few controversial things mentioned in his autobiography regarding the vice-captaincy role being carried out by Clarke at the time. Ponting also revealed that he was not too pleased when ‘Pup’ was reluctant to get into the planning and the debriefs for the leadership role he held.

“In his autobiography, Ricky wrote that he was ‘disappointed with some of the things I did as vice-captain’. He didn’t accuse me of being treacherous or disruptive but said I was reluctant to get involved in planning meetings or daily debriefs and take on a leadership role. When my private life was turbulent, he said, I would go into my shell. He was right. I was not a good vice-captain to him,” Clarke writes in his book.

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