Hussey says Clarke should have been given at least two more weeks to attain full fitness.
Former Australian batsman Michael Hussey believes incumbent skipper Michael Clarke should be given more time to prove his fitness before a final call is taken on his availability for the entire duration of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Clarke has been asked to prove his fitness before Australia's second league match against Bangladesh on February 21 if he is to remain part of the team for the entire length of the tournament. However, Hussey believes that the skipper should have been given at least two more weeks to gain complete fitness.
"I'd be happy for Michael to miss the first four games," Hussey, a World Cup winner in 2007, said in an interview with Sydney Morning Herald. "He's obviously a very important player, he's the captain, he has a lot of experience, he's played World Cups, we need him. He should be given as much time as possible to get himself right and carried for as long as possible.That's just my opinion. They want to keep continuity and, also, there is no guarantee he doesn't re-injure it. It's a really difficult situation for the selectors but, just on principle, my stance would [be] to try and give him as long as possible," he noted.
Hussey can relate to Clarke's hamstring injury. He himself had suffered a hamstring injury in the lead-up to the 2011 tournament, and wasn't considered for selection when the final 15-member team was announced. He had even lobbied extensively, and had reminded the then selection panel, led by Andrew Hilditch, which had demanded a completely fit squad ahead of the tournament proper, of the special case of Andrew Symonds, prior to the 2007 World Cup. The allrounder had suffered a torn bicep back then and was named in the 15-man squad despite carrying the injury.
Despite the best efforts of Hussey, he wasn't considered in the 15-man squad and made a belated entry only after Doug Bollinger was ruled out of the tournament with an injury. Hussey doesn't want the Australia skipper to suffer along the same lines. "I had the same argument with the selectors back then," Hussey said. "I told them it wasn't about being 100 per cent at the start, it was about being 100 per cent at the end. Symonds had been given every opportunity to play for us in the previous World Cup and, I believe, rightly so because he was such an important player. The selectors really got it right with him.
"He wasn't going to be available for the opening games but with the right treatment we were confident he was going to be fit and firing towards the back end of the tournament, the business end. And, that's how it panned out. He played some really important innings, did his thing in the field, helped out with the ball and played his usual part around the team. It was part of our success," he said.
Drawing a comparison with this year's tournament, Hussey said he would ideally give Clarke enough time to recover so that he would to be ready by March 8 - when Australia face Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). That would also give him two matches before the crucial knock-out phase of the competition. "It's tournament play, it's not a cut-throat best-of-five series," Hussey said. "Tournament play is different. As a team you're sort of hoping you're not playing your best cricket at the start. It's a case of building up to it. You're looking for the right combinations, you might be a bit rusty but as the tournament goes through you're hammering down skills, hammering down everyone's role, and working up to your best," he added.
"The World Cup is about starting slowly, building momentum and doing enough to get through to the quarter-finals and semi-finals. You want to be playing your best cricket, with your best players, at the back end of the tournament, not so much at the start," Hussey concluded.
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