‘Australian cricket captain most important position after Prime Minister’, says Darren Lehmann

With Australian skipper Michael Clarke racing against time to be fit for the ICC World Cup 2015, coach Darren Lehmann said that Australian captain occupies the second-most important position after the Prime Minister and everyone wants him to be fit.

According to Cricketcountry.com, Lehmann said, "He's captain of Australia, the second most important position behind the Prime Minister as such, we need our captain playing well."

"When he played well he got a hundred in Adelaide and we won that Test match. We took a risk with that with his hamstring and the history of it but that was for good reason for obvious reasons as everyone knows."

Clarke had to be in the sidelines due to serious hamstring injury after the first Test against India in December and Steve Smith filled the void of a captain for the three remaining Tests.

"We all get on, that's the great thing. Media can say what they like. Media will speculate and people are going to have their views. From our point of view we want our captain fit, which is great leading into the most important tournament for four years. We've got the World Cup, the West Indies tour and the Ashes, and we want him ready to go because he leads this side very well," the former Australian batsman added.

Clarke had hit 51 for his local Western Suburbs team in his first comeback game and Cricket Australia given time to prove his fitness until Australia's second pool match against Bangladesh on February 21.

"I'm sick of it. I'm looking forward to him coming back. He played grade cricket on the weekend which is great; he's playing up here on Thursday so I'll get to have a look at him. I had a good chat to him and he pulled up really well from the grade game. He's ahead of schedule and I think he's said that in the press as well. Fingers crossed he might be," said Lehmann.

"Now when he gets back we've got to make sure he's right to go. We can't afford it to keep going on us in important stages. He knows that, he's diligent, he's good to go and really confident he'll be right to lead us hopefully before Bangladesh, but definitely by Bangladesh," he further added.