Like Marsh, the contract of Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's general manager of team performance, runs out in June next year and the former Wallaby is yet to commit to remaining in the high-powered post beyond next winter.

The 42-year-old is understood to be yet to make a decision on whether he will continue until the 2019 Ashes or walk away but it's believed weighing heavily in his consideration will be the sizeable time away from family the job demands. Howard's is no desk job – he has travelled to all corners of the cricket world with the men's and women's teams since his appointment following the Argus review – and has four children at home aged between eight and 13.

It's not like he doesn't have anything to fall back on either – the thriving pharmacy business he founded now operates in 20 locations.

Should Howard leave it will no doubt be music to the ears for many of the old guard, who have never quite warmed to having a rugby man pulling the strings of Australian cricket despite the good – most notably a return to No.1 in the Test rankings, twice, a World Cup win, and the success of the Southern Stars – that has come with the bad – the repeated failures in Asia and England – during his five years in charge.

To his credit, he has never sought acclaim when the Australian team has been flying and when they haven't been he's stepped up time and again as a punching bag for the venting of frustration about the ills of the game. Most recently  that has centred around resting or withdrawal of players from tours and on Thursday the replacement of Mitchell Starc midway through a Sheffield Shield game to be readied for next week's first Test against South Africa. The cramped international schedule that has prompted such decisions, however, is the creation of administrators further up the food chain. For better or worse, his job has been to try to chart the best course through it.

While his own future is uncertain it is Howard's responsibility to find a replacement for Marsh, and there are no shortage of candidates signalling an interest.

Together: Shane Warne and Michael Clarke. Photo: Philip Brown

Spinner's silence

When Michael Clarke was butting heads with others in the Australian set-up towards the end of his captaincy – his accounts of which are contained in his new autobiography – you could almost set your clock to his 'best friend' Shane Warne going in to bat for him. The leg-spin great has been conspicuous by his silence in the past two weeks, however, as former teammates such as Simon Katich and Mitchell Johnson have lined up Clarke  after the book release. It hasn't gone unnoticed in cricket circles and has even led to suggestions that things between Clarke and Warne may not be as rosy as they were. That is not the case, though, according to Warne's manager, James Erskine, who also used to look after Clarke's affairs. Contacted by The Tonk, Erskine said there had been no fall-out and reported that Warne had been in England for four weeks and sick with a nasty throat virus. He is back in the country now and attending Derby Day at Flemington on Saturday. Clarke and Warne will share a commentary box together this summer.

Binga bounced

Speaking of commentary and the Channel 9 team, take it as read that Brett Lee was anything but impressed about the public reason offered by the network for his exit. Lee and Mike Hussey have both been flicked from Nine's cricket team and their contracts paid out, while Clarke and possibly Kevin Pietersen are on the way in. We're reliably informed that Lee was fuming about Nine's public explanation that he was too busy with business interests and family commitments to take on the circuit this summer. It's understood it had been explained to Lee and Hussey that they were being let go for budget reasons. The Tonk has been told that Nine simply felt they had too many commentators on their books. We called Lee to ask him about it but all he would say is: "How did you get my number?". Fortunately, the phone has kept ringing from others who have his digits including India's Star TV, with whom he signed mid-year, his new manager Jake Elder said.