It's not about one incident: Clarke

Australia skipper Michael Clarke stressed the axing of four players - Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Usman Khawaja and Mitchell Johnson - was due to a prolonged failure of some players to meet the standards set by the team.

Michael Clarke. Pic/Getty Images

Clarke explained the foursome had been in trouble previously. "We can't accept mediocrity here. This is the Australian cricket team, maybe I am biased, but there is a big difference between this team and other cricket teams.

"If you play for Australia, there is a lot that comes with that and standards, discipline, culture... that is all a big part of what we are talking about here.

"A lot of people who are saying (it has been too harsh) don't know the full story and hopefully by me giving them more information they will understand this.

"It's not the fact that they didn't do their homework, to represent this team we have high standards, we need to have those to get the best out of every person in this team.

"It's not just about one incident, there have been number of things where we haven't been giving ourselves every single opportunity to be the best individual players we can be."