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The right leader

Very few team sports have as much time (and media focus) devoted to picking the captain as cricket does. I've always felt that the traditional Australian view of picking the best team and then the captain is a great one because unless the captain is respected for his abilities as a player its a difficult job to direct team-mates. They seem to be violating their own principles with their T20 team though by picking Michael Clarke as the captain. He averages less than 20 after 19 matches (which is not a small number in this format) and hits less than one boundary a game. Moreover he hasn't played the IPL and nor was he a part of the Champions League winning NSW team.

And yet, he's been given the job of trying to win the Aussies the only global tournament they have not made the finals of even once. Granted that other captains (Younis Khan is a good example) have led their teams brilliantly without themselves being very suited to the format, but Pakistan had very few options. Australia on the other hand has a very credible candidate in Cameron White who is among the first names on the team-sheet these days (even for ODIs). The rest of the squad though certainly looks like it'll put up a better challenge than the previous two world cup teams come April in the West Indies. The selection of Steve Smith is particularly exciting though I'm surprised to see that Nathan Hauritz hasn't been picked especially given how successful slower bowlers have been in this format (to the extent that even South Africa regularly picks two).

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