And it continues. Former Australian cricket captain, Michael Clarke said he would think about a return to the captaincy if asked by “the right people”.
Clarke appeared on Channel 9’s Sport Sunday to talk about the events in Cape Town, South Africa. And by that I mean the ball-tampering and throwing Bancroft under a double-decker bus ultimately leading to what some are calling, the absolute destruction of Australia‘s international cricket reputation.
Before appearing on the show, Clarke admitted he had already received dozens of comments on his social media asking if ball-tampering happened under his reign as Aussie cricket captain. To these he wholeheartedly denied.
Peter FitzSimons to Clarke, “If asked to take the Australian captaincy, is it a possibility?”
Clarke answered, “If I was asked by the right people, then I would think about my answer.”
Earlier in the interview, Clarke had this to say of the “disgraceful” event.
“Cameron Bancroft, this is his eighth Test match. I can’t believe the ‘leadership’ group has made a decision to do this. That they’ve gone and get the young kid, who’s playing his eighth test match to do that. As a leader you can’t ask somebody to do something you’re not willing to do yourself, number one. Steve Smith is such a lovely, lovely guy. You can see there, he’s just shattered. I really feel sorry for them.”
Bancroft was caught on camera with some yellow tape. Initially he used the tape to pick loose pieces of dirt from the wicket but then he used the tape to rub the cricket ball. He did this to roughen up one side creating the reverse swing that usually ends in a handful of fallen wickets.
Captain Steve Smith took full responsibility for the incident. According to him, no coaches were aware of the ball-tampering. Smith also said he would not be stepping down from the captaincy.
When Clarke was asked if the incident was a mistake or blatant cheating, he said,
“It’s premeditated cheating, it’s blatant cheating, it’s disgraceful, it’s not accepted by anyone and particularly an Australian. We’ve got the best balling attack in the world, we don’t need to cheat to beat anybody.”
You can watch the interview snippet below.
https://twitter.com/SportsSunday/status/977684830434611200
https://twitter.com/SportsSunday/status/977694630681526272
Though I would personally love Pup out of the commentator box, this is surely not the solution.
