I don't like Victorians either, (I appreciate you clearing that up. Nothing like calling a spade a spade.) but there is more to it than that. The point is White does not by any stretch of the imagination deserve to be in the First XI. (How so? His FC average is comparable to any other candidates and he stood out above all others against this opposition in the PM's XI game. Scrutinise the facts without prejudice - you may be surprised!) He is not one of the best six batsmen (in ODIs, yes, Tests, no) and you could argue against his captaincy as well. I don't get to watch him play much but would it be possible that his captaincy is so good because he gets to play in the best domestic team in the country? (Are they? You said it. Well you certainly can't hold it against him, can you?) Much the same as Ponting is statistically the best captain ever because he played in such a good team (Is he? More wins maybe, but more losses too). I've never really seen White as a brilliant captain, but as I said, I haven't seen much of him on the field (Enough said), only highlights of the games (which strangely enough don't show captain's tactics) (Funny about that).
There is obviously something good about Clarke, and he has been groomed for the spot since the first day of his career. (Same can be said of White, who was made captain of his state in his early 20's after debuting at age 17.) I think his ODI tactics are as good, if not better, than Ponting's and in T20s, contrary to your thoughts, I think he has been quite brilliant (Really ... how so?). He may be nowhere near one of the 11 best T20 players but his captaincy of them has been pretty darned good. (But shouldn't the point be that he doesn't "by any stretch of the imagination deserve to be in the First XI"?)
I don't like Clarke as a person (I don't even know him), but I think he will do just fine. He might not be a Monty Noble or a Mark Taylor, but he's as good as any captain going around these days (Because he's the only one you know - except for Chris Simpson of course, but that's another story). I can't name a great international captain of the last 5 years, mostly because it has become so easy to pull them apart. (Smith, Strauss, Dhoni, ... they've all beaten us. Fleming.)
Australian's pick their captain out of he best 11 players, not pick the best captain for the other 10 players. North no longer gets selected (probably never will again), Katich is injured, White's not in the best form, nor has been in the Test team for over 18 months and for only one series, which leaves only Clarke, Haddin and Hussey (unless you think somebody like Watson could captain). (No, I most certainly don't. What I'm getting at is perhaps it is time we sought a captain from outside of what the selectors keep giving us - although I'd accept Hussey or Katich in the interim. It's an important job, not to be given away lightly.)
Our batting is getting better????????????? hahahahahahaha. Even in the game we won we only managed around 600 in 2 innings.
I like your enthusiasm, but it's going to take a very long time to get back to dominating test cricket... if we ever do.
