Ricky Ponting

At this point it is generally acknowledged that Ricky Ponting won’t be captain of Australia for much after the World Cup, if he makes even that long. Many have the opinion that the Ashes this year will be Ricky’s swansong, much like the home series in 2006 was the last hurrah for Glenn Macgrath and Shane Warne. In fact, even England captain Andrew Strauss has said that he doesn’t expect Ricky to stay on as Captain if Australia loses the series down under. Which is a strange thought, not because Ricky still has years of captaincy in him, but because it is difficult to imagine an Australian team without Ricky Ponting at the helm.

The question that arises from the looming and inevitable retirement of Ricky Ponting is thus: Who will be the next Captain? To anyone who has followed the Australian team with anything approaching interest over the past few years, the answer is obvious. Michael Clarke. But is ‘Pup’ really the best man for the job? He has nothing that even approaches regular captaincy experience, barring a few one day internationals and T20’s at the helm of the national team. He is not the captain of his state team and even if he was, he would not spend enough time out of the Australian team to get any notable experience. Which brings us on to this question: Can Australia afford to have a Captain who is still only learning his craft?

Learning to be a good captain on the job is one of the most difficult things someone can be expected to do. Looking back, only a very few people have had the sheer force of will to pull it off with aplomb. Graeme Smith is perhaps one of the best examples of this, thrown the captaincy in only his ninth Test match aged only 22; he has shouldered the burden of the captaincy admirably. Does Clarke have similarly wide shoulders? Bear in mind that Smith also had some of the greats of the modern game in the team he was set to steward and players like Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock to guide him. When Ponting finally hangs up his boots, Clarke will be left trying to learn his craft as one of the most senior members of the team and will have one of the weakest Australian teams in recent history to try and forge ahead with. Will he be up to the task?