Australia won’t have a captain for 15 years if it is looking for a perfect leader, says Michael Clarke

The Ashes 2021-2022 is scheduled to begin from December 8 in Brisbane, and just three weeks before the five-match Test series, Tim Paine stepped down from Australia’s Test captaincy after his involvement in a sexting scandal became public. However, Cricket Australia is yet to announce Paine’s replacement, and an official announcement from the governing body is expected soon ahead of the Ashes series.

"Of course, you have to uphold certain standards but are you going to say: 'He can change, he can mature," Clarke told 'Big Sports Breakfast'.

Speaking on Australia captaincy, Clarke pointed out how Ricky Ponting became one of the finest leaders in cricket after a poor start to his international career.

“Go back in my time even to Ricky Ponting. If that's the case, he never would have captained Australia,"  he said.

"He's a great example. He's shown you how time, experience, maturity, playing at the highest level and even the captaincy turned him around," Clarke added.

Reflecting on Tim Paine’s resignation from the post, the former Australian skipper reckoned that he is still confused with the wicket-keeper batsman’s decision to step down from the captaincy role over the 2017 incident.

"If Cricket Australia were there telling him he had no choice, then he should've stood there and said: 'Listen, that's on you. You guys sack me, go for it but I gave you this information four years ago. I handed it to you, I was open, I was honest, I was straight and I was cleared'.

"Just because it's the public, the rules of engagement are different? I don't think so. It seems to me Cricket Tasmania are saying exactly that, hang on, you cleared him four years ago," Clarke said.