Can Clarke inspire a miracle?

For 15 years, Australians watched with thinly disguised glee as English cricket made mediocrity an art form.

The English game was in a mess and Australian players and fans feasted on the disarray.

Now the boot is on the other foot and we Australians are suffering, scratching our heads as we search for solutions to our Test decline, smiling meekly at the latest gentle but telling quip from our Pommy friends.

And now we read sacked Australia coach Mickey Arthur's latest comments in a newspaper.

The article says Arthur "was forced to take a tough stance ... because the team lacked direction and leadership".

It quotes Arthur: "I understood that I drive the ship, but the ship needed conscious changes - it needed value changes. We put together this whole values document for all the young players because the young guys coming in didn't know."

Lacked leadership? In Australian cricket, the captain not the coach drives the ship. If Arthur is right in saying the team lacked leadership then he's surely referring, at least in part, to Michael Clarke.

Clarke has proven himself to be a superb batsman and a creative tactician. But the suspicion grows that he struggles to inspire loyalty and respect among his players, that he doesn't know how to "manage" them.

Educating them is part of the captain's job. The wider system preparing players for international selection should do most of the work. But the buck stops at the captain, and skippers like Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh didn't have to spell it out, let alone put it in a booklet. One glare got the message across.

In the recent fourth Test, as Australia's bowlers gave away easy runs on the fourth and final morning, Clarke was switching from frowns to laughter as easily as Kevin Pietersen switch-hits.

There didn't seem to be much to laugh about, as another Test slipped away. Either Clarke's fellow slip fieldsman, Shane Watson, has a hidden Woody Allen inside that gym-produced torso or Clarke was laughing at nothing.

Clarke's team needs at least a draw at The Oval to avoid a second consecutive 0-4 series defeat. The team is in a mess and needs a strong leader. If Clarke can't inspire some fight in this match then his credentials as a captain will come under intense scrutiny.

Who could replace Clarke as captain? Don't ask.

So now to The Oval for the final act in this Ashes series.

As Australia's selectors prepare to move a few deckchairs on their listing ship, England have flexed some muscle, showing off their depth by adding a new spinner to their squad and recalling fast bowler Steven Finn.

Finn and the equally elongated Chris Tremlett will love Australia's fast, bouncy pitches.

Their presence at The Oval, whether they play or not, is an unsubtle reminder to the Australians that England's preparations for the return series Down Under are coming along nicely.

Mark can be contacted at markray@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/21/2013 page23)