Former Australia (and previously Proteas coach) Mickey Arthur was sacked… once again. Was this a surprise? Was this expected or synonymous with the name “Arthur”. Maybe? Maybe not. One thing is for certain, he did not have the easiest of jobs. Below is a breakdown of certain scenarios which led to Arthur’s eventual demise:
- Disciplinary issues
- The loss of too many veterans
- Inexperience was prevalent
- New captaincy
- India, South Africa & the Ashes
In recent weeks we were not only the audience to a pub brawl between Australia’s David Warner and England’s Joe Root, but were given a front row seat to a battle of “intellect” between Warner and notable cricketing journalist, Malcolm Conn.
David Warner was clearly quite angry and if that was not enough to worry Arthur and the ACB, he had to uppercut Joe Root (in an English pub at 2am in the morning).
In the last 6 years, the Australians lost the services of Gilly, Warne, McGrath, Ricky Ponting. Bringing in the likes of Matthew Wade, Cummins and Starke looked like the commencement of a brand new era. However, the “second coming” is taking much longer than anticipated and may have been a contributing factor to the dismissal of Arthur.
The Aussies have a habit of rotating players regularly in multiple formats of the game. Suddenly, with the absence of their esteemed veterans they had to turn to their rotated players. With that said, Arthur initiated an era for an inexperienced Aussie team, inadvertently making them the new whipping boys of international cricket (particularly in the test arena).
Michael Clarke was undoubtedly the best batsman of 2012. Clarke scored 576 runs in the 3 match series and began his captaincy in true brutal fashion. He led by example in several instances, perhaps the most notable being his 230 (257) out of a total 550 on the first day in Adelaide. However, being a test captain does not only require you to perform optimally at the crease, but behind the scenes as well. Question, if Arthur was fired for not managing his players effectively… why was Clarke not implicated into the performance meeting as well? A captain should be held responsible for the performance of his players, both on and off the field.
With a 1-0 loss to the Proteas in Australia, followed by a 4-0 drumming by the Indians, the Aussies had a less than a desirable year. Below is a breakdown of the Aussie results in the last 10 months (for more information click here.)
This morning, we learned that Darren Lehman, former Aussie left handed middle order batsman will take over the helm from Arthur. This was due to LEhamns recent exploits in the IPL, followed by his tenure as the Australia A coach. The Aussie A team had a successful visit of England thus far. Lehmann and the ACB seem optimistic, especially considering that the Ashes is around the corner.
Mickey Arthur, as mentioned previously, had an extremely tough job serving as the Coach of the Australian team. He is the first non-Australian to coach the cricket team and notched a few accolades in his limited time with the baggy greens. On behalf of the SA Cricketblog team, we wish Mickey the absolute best.
