Former captain comes down hard on Cricket Australia over ODI series loss to Pakistan

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke lambasted the national selectors for resting key players for the final match of the one-day international (ODI) series against Pakistan, saying they did not care about losing the competition. 

Pakistan on Sunday defeated Australia in the three-match ODI series in their home for the first time since 2002 as the Men in Green raced to a commanding eight-wicket victory in the decider.

The home side was missing skipper Pat Cummins, alongside Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in the series decider, while Mitch Marsh and Travis Head missed the entire series due to paternal leaves.

Notably, Australia prioritised the Border-Gavaskar Trophy — a five-match Test series against India, scheduled to start 11 days after the third ODI against Pakistan.

Clarke, who led Australia to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2015 glory, was disappointed with how the hosts treated the ODI series.

“I’m just a bit confused. So 11 days between now and the first Test [in Perth], why can’t the Aussie boys who are part of this Test series play in the one-dayer?” he said on his radio show on Monday.

“If Australia had won the first two games, then you can understand why they rest their big fish, but it was [the] series on the line,” he added.

Clarke further blamed Australia for “not caring” about the outcome of the ODI series, a format, which is downhill due to packed franchise cricket in a calendar year. “You can’t expect the fans to want to come and watch one-day cricket.”

He added: “We are bagging one-day cricket. No-one is turning up, hasn’t got the interest. I feel like we obviously don’t care about losing that series. If you’re not going to care, we’re not going to care.”