Michael Clarke critiqued on captaincy skills by Andrew Symonds

Michael Clarke critiqued on captaincy skills by Andrew Symonds: After Michael Clarke announced his retirement from the international cricket headlines about the retiring captain has continued to flash in the news. Former team-mate Andrew Symonds criticized Michael Clarke’s captaincy saying he is not a “natural leader” and also referred to some old grumbles between the pair, who once were very good friends.

Symonds is not the only one to criticize the 34-year old, as prior to him Mathew Hayden also a former team-mate revealed a shocking incident when Clarke once threatened to hand back his Test cap after he was asked to field at short-leg. And not to mention the report of a local newspaper the Courier-Mail that said Clarke had travelled by a different vehicle and not along with the team refusing to socialize with his team mates, the accusation which was dismissed by the skipper.

On today’s show Andrew Symonds being critical of Michael Clarke as the leader of the Australian side, “To me he wasn’t as natural leader as we’ve had in the past, it was very easy to fall in behind a Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting when asked to do something. They were the sort of men that didn’t need to say a great deal.

“Michael’s got a completely different style, which he’s entitled to. I didn’t play a great deal of cricket under him. I played quite a lot with him, but he’s got his style. It’s a situation which will be debated and talked about for quite some time, his style, and the way he’s gone about things over the years.” Symonds added

Early in Clarke’s career, both shared a close bond. Reportedly, the duo went on a road trip around Australia in 2006. The friendship between the two team mates got its first blow when Clarke was a part of the group that punished Symonds who went on fishing rather than attending a training camp in Darwin back in 2008.

However, the end in the friendship came after incident when Symonds was drinking outside the team hotel room during the World T20 in England that tore up Symonds’ Cricket Australia contract in 2009.

In an interview later on the same year, he revealed that he is not in talking terms with Clarke, “I’ve moved on from that time in my life, Symonds said on Monday, in reference to the dramatic end of his relationship with Clarke. It’s a shame it happened.”

“But as we all know you can’t get on with everyone and in a group of men like that there will be clashes. I did some silly things in my time but there was a number of things I didn’t agree with and still don’t that Michael does and says.”

Symonds and Hayden remain close friends. This isn’t the first time when he has spoken out against Clarke as written in Daniel Brettig’s book Whitewash to Whitewash, Hayden was not in the favour of Clarke being appointed as the captain of the Australian side after Ponting’s sudden resignation in 2011.

“His uneasy relationship with Ponting, the perception of Clarke as a cause of trouble in the team … his departure from New Zealand to break up with Lara Bingle, and his bust-up with Simon Katich on Hayden’s final night as a Test cricketer,” were the pointed out reasons for not choosing Clarke as the captain.