Country must come before IPL, CLT20 - Clarke

Michael Clarke, the Australia vice-captain, has said international players can find a way around hectic schedules, but it could involve giving the IPL and Champions League T20 an occasional miss to make sure they are at their best when playing for the country. Clarke was speaking on a day two of Australia's first-choice players - Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger - joined the squad, two days before the start of the Test series. India await their Chennai Super Kings players MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and M Vijay.

Clarke said the Australian team had no choice with Bollinger and Hussey, but he saw the positives in the fact that they were playing "tough" cricket, playing well, and winning it. Australia arrived in India in similar circumstances last year as well, with Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz and Doug Bollinger joining the team on the eve of the first ODI after their Champions League commitments. Lee lasted one match in that series.

Clarke was firm that the players needed to be wise while choosing where and when to play in a modern cricketing world full of opportunities. "For me, we all have a choice," he said. "You don't have to play IPL. You don't have to play Champions League. For me, personally, right now it is about representing my country, and every game I can play for Australia, I will do that. That's my priority. If, as an individual player, you are tired or your body needs some rest, you need to make that commitment outside of international cricket. You need to, maybe, play less in the IPL or play less in the Champions League."

Clarke and Mitchell Johnson are two high-profile Australia players to have not taken part in the IPL yet.

Hectic schedules, he said, were part of a modern cricketer's life. "There is obviously a lot of cricket on at the moment, but it's a part of what you do as a professional athlete," he said. "You train every day, and when you are not training, you are playing or travelling. I think it's all about adapting and trying to make do as much as you can.

"When we leave this tour, we have one day at home before we fly to Perth to play the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka. So you have completely different conditions, completely different opposition, completely different format. So you have to be able to adjust, and that's probably the toughest thing about cricket these days. You have three different formats, in so many different conditions around the world."

Like Australia, who have three days between the India tour and the home limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, India have five days between their last ODI against New Zealand and their first Test in South Africa. Clarke, however, said that players enjoyed the fact that there was so much cricket to choose from. "That's a great challenge that you look forward to. Having success in all the different conditions in the world makes you a good international cricketer," he said. "That's probably the hardest thing: that you have to travel and play in so many different conditions. But there are so many positives. You get to experience so many different cultures. Different parts of the world. It certainly helps your cricket."