Australia cricket team captain Michael Clarke is reportedly at war with Cricket Australia and would be asked to explain to chief executive James Sutherland the comments that could ultimately threaten his future as the team's skipper.
Clarke was going to rule himself out of the first Test against India on Tuesday, but the announcement from CA was put on hold because of the serious injury to Phil Hughes.
Hughes and Clarke are close friends and the horrible accident at the Sydney Cricket Ground cast all other issues into the background. But key decision makers are furious with Clarke, and tensions with the selectors and the CA hierarchy are mounting, Stuff.co.nz reported.
CA believes that the skipper has tried to run his own fitness race, in defiance of the agreed plan, in an unrealistic attempt to return from a recurring hamstring injury in time for the start of the series from December 4.
The captain's public utterances have been at odds with those of team performance boss Pat Howard and chairman of selectors Rod Marsh, who needed to be convinced that Clarke could get through a Test without breaking down after injuring the same hamstring in the same spot three times in three months.
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Initially, CA wanted Clarke to prove his fitness in the Sheffield Shield game from Tuesday, but then relented and agreed to extend his fitness deadline to allow him to play in the two-day tour game against India from Friday.
However Clarke confirmed at a personal sponsor's event on Monday that he would not be lining up for a CA XI in the tour game but instead wanted to play for his club side Western Suburbs.
Before the news of Hughes' injury broke, Sutherland said that he wanted an explanation and that the issue of his fitness had teetered off the rails. He said that he would speak to Clarke and others who have been involved in the process to make sure that he understands where these things have gone awry.
Clarke's revised goal is likely to be the second Test in Adelaide from December 12, but CA would presumably still want him to play a warm-up game before then.
