Australia rebuild must begin in Sri Lanka - Clarke
Captain Michael Clarke said 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.”
AFP |