Image courtesy of: The Telegraph

Lehmann’s first assignment will be the crucial Ashes series

Cricket Australia have announced that they have decided to terminate Mickey Arthur as the national team’s head coach in favour of Darren Lehmann just days ahead of the pivotal Ashes series.

There have also been reports that Test captain Michael Clarke will give up his status as a selector as Cricket Australia look to begin restructuring their entire organisation.

Lehmann recently finished his role as Australia A’s mentor and given all the success he has had with Queensland, it comes as no surprise that he is rated as one of the best coaches in all of Australia.

However, despite Cricket Australia’s rapid announcement of Lehmann taking over, Arthur’s termination has still not sunk in for many of the players in the Ashes squad.

But, the team will have to move on and focus all their attention on the Ashes after they were humiliated in their own backyard during the 2010-11 Ashes series.

Arthur took up the position of head coach in November 2011 after he was chosen to replace Tim Neilsen, who was sacked when Australia lost the Ashes in 2010-11.

Arthur’s reign as head coach has been a good one as Australia won 10 out of their 19 Test matches, but in recent times, his image has become marred by the 4-0 whitewashing the baggy greens received at the hands of India and the ‘homework-gate’ scandal, in which he was forced to axe Shane Watson, Usman Khawaja, James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson for the third Test of the India series after they failed to complete a homework assignment set by him.

Arthur’s image continued to take a downward slide as Australia failed to win a single match in the recently concluded Champions Trophy and who could forget David Warner’s Rocky-style punch on England’s Joe Root at the Walkabout bar in Birmingham on June 8.

With Arthur gone, Australia will have to quickly adapt to the coaching style of Lehmann if they are to have any chance of bringing the coveted Ashes urn back home.