Unbeaten in a Test series as national captain, Michael Clarke says there’s no room for sentiment as Australia strive to wrestle the world No.1 ranking from South Africa next month.
Clarke admits voting for 24-year-old Matthew Wade over good friend Brad Haddin as Australia’s wicketkeeper for the first Test starting in Brisbane on Friday week was among the toughest decisions of his 18-month reign as fulltime captain.
But the all-business skipper is also adamant it was the right decision – and says it doesn’t necessarily spell the end of 35-year-old Haddin’s international career.
“For me, it was always going to be difficult,” Clarke said after he joined the other four selection members in voting unanimously for Wade to retain the role he seized when Haddin returned home from the Caribbean in April for family reasons.
“One thing that I’ve always said to the players since taking over the captaincy and becoming a selector is that no selection that I have any impact on will be personal.
“It’s always about what’s best for the team and I’ve spoken to Brad and he certainly knows this won’t affect our relationship.
“We’ve been great friends for a long time. I think I played my first game with Brad when I was 17, so things won’t change there.
“He’s been a great player for a long time and this certainly isn’t the end of his career in my opinion.
“I think his batting at the moment is as good as anybody’s in first-class cricket.
“I know he’ll be pushing for selection, whether it be as a wicketkeeper-batsman or just a batsman.
“So I certainly don’t think we’ve seen the last of Brad Haddin.”
Haddin, a 43-Test veteran and decade-long NSW teammate of Clarke’s, has scored 123 runs at an average of 41 from three innings this first-class season and also captained the Sydney Sixers to Champions League T20 glory on Monday in South Africa.
“I phoned Brad towards the end of last week and we had a really good conversation and part of that conversation was that he was still very much in the reckoning,” said Australian chairman of selectors John Inverarity.
“I gave him the assurance that if Matthew Wade were to be injured in the first Test, he’d be our replacement wicketkeeper coming into the second Test.
“Nobody knows what the future will bring, but he’s very much in contention.
“As I said, if there’s an injury, he could come back very quickly.
“He’s a very fit 35-year-old. He remains strongly in contention.”
Australia, currently rated No.3 behind South Africa and England, will return to No.1 in the Test rankings for the first time since 2009 should they beat the Proteas in the three-match series.
Clarke has led Australia in five Test series since taking over fulltime from Ricky Ponting early last year, winning three and drawing two.