After ‘Watson controversy’ Michael Clarke claims in his autobiography that Australian head coach Darren Lehmann wanted to crave power and controls the Australian set-up. Clarke’s autobiography highlights the fractures within the Australian team during his tenure as captain.
The book says Clarke accused Lehmann of wanting the “power to shake things up and run the team his way”. But, Lehmann told that he had no personal issue with Clarke.
“No, I don’t think that is the case as such. “I always worked really close with ‘Pup’ (Clarke) and Steven (Smith, current skipper). At the end of the day, they are the ones in the heat of the battle out there.” Lehmann said.
“They have to have exactly what they want and need, that’s all we do as support staff – make sure they get exactly what they want and need. As for power … I don’t think that is the case at all, but everyone is entitled to their opinion,” he added.
Lehmann believed his relationship with Clarke was not strained. “It’s still good, I get on with him fine,” he said. “The relationships between him and other people, that’s between him and other people, they have got to sort that out. All I try to do is prepare the players more and be a sounding board, you can’t make a decision out on the ground because that is the captain’s role.
“All you can do is try to give them as much information off the ground as you possibly can and away they go and the captain runs the ship,” he added. “That’s how it’s always been when I played and is now.”
Meanwhile, Lehmann defended the axing of Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja in Sri Lanka after the latter publicly stated that the pair were made “scapegoats”. “I will chat to Usman privately, we would rather have these things played out between selectors and players,” Lehmann said. “Being on the selection panel for the Test match, it (their demotion) was warranted.
“At the end of the day, there were different conditions and those two guys weren’t playing well enough, they averaged eight or seven in two Test matches,” he added. “We have to work out what we think the best batting line-up is for the summer.”