Sydney: Injured skipper Michael Clarke should quit playing One-Day Internationals (ODI) after the 2015 World Cup in order to finish his career as one of the true greats of Australian cricket, former captain Allan Border has said.
Clarke will meet physiotherapist Alex Kountouris in Sydney Thursday to find out more about his persistent hamstring injury and formulate a plan for the weeks ahead, which should shed further light on his availability for the Test series against India, starting Dec 4.
"If he wants to prolong his career, I think he should give away the short form," Border was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday.
"We've got a home World Cup only a few months away, fingers crossed he can get himself through that, and I would be thinking then I've had my crack at the World Cup, whatever happens I'm going to concentrate for the next couple of years on being the the best Test player I can be."
Border said that if Clarke's body holds up, he is capable of breaking Australian Test run-scoring records, but that he should make the World Cup his limited-overs swansong to focus on his Test career.
"If Michael's dodgy back holds up, I see no reason why he shouldn't go right to the top of that list," Border wrote in his new book 'As I See It'.
"I would think that would be less stress on his body, not as much energy required with running between the wickets, that kind of thing. To me that would be the perfect scenario."
Clarke is fifth on the Australian run-scoring list in Tests with 8,297 runs, behind Ponting, Border, Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden. Ricky Ponting leads the chart with 13,378 runs.
Clarke has said he does not intend to play into his late 30s.
Border has warned Cricket Australia (CA) against pushing Clarke for the Border-Gavaskar series against India to ensure he can lead next year's World Cup and Ashes campaigns.
But he was open to the idea of promoting a young leader such as Steve Smith to the top job if both Clarke and Brad Haddin were unavailable to captain the Test side.
"You never find out until you give these people a bit of a run at it," said Border.
"If circumstances force your hand I've got no problem throwing a younger player in. If Brad Haddin is fit and the captain's crook, he takes over the job. If it's a bit more of a long-term thing, you think who's our next obvious candidate, and it probably is someone like Steve Smith."
