It was just a couple of sentences in a post-match explanation that ran close to 10 minutes, but in the present climate it stood out like a dot ball bowled to Brendon McCullum.

As Michael Clarke conceded his team's batting in Saturday's low-scoring World Cup thriller had been very poor, he predictably took aim at the shot selection, including his own, but also blamed the way they had practised in the week before.

"I think sometimes in Twenty20 cricket and one-day cricket you can get caught up working on the power side of your game," he told reporters soon after Australia's one-wicket defeat to New Zealand at Eden Park. "I don't think we have had too many training sessions where we have worked on the start of our game and actually defending the brand new ball or the swinging ball."

Taken on its own it was rather benign, a captain simply spelling out his view on why it all unravelled so spectacularly across the ditch. However, given the backdrop of months of uneasiness between captain and coach, among others, it was difficult not to interpret it as a none too subtle shot at Darren Lehmann.

Training and preparation is, of course, run by the head coach and his staff. In fact, that's just about where their governance should end, Shane Warne opined a week or so ago in a highly-publicised radio interview that Lehmann should be "careful" not to encroach on Clarke's on-field leadership. Warne, gushing in his lengthy sponsorship of his good friend, had led many to believe he was almost speaking on the captain's behalf, though he did not actually say that.

Whatever the case, a week later Clarke is speaking for himself. It will no doubt be insisted that there was nothing sinister in his analysis of the loss to the Black Caps. And given how much time the Australians spent in centre-wicket practice whacking balls into the old wooden grandstand at Eden Park No.2 during the week, perhaps hoping to do the same over the short boundaries inside the stadium, he might have a point.

George Bailey smashed a window, Glenn Maxwell just about hit a spotlight, and more than a few spectators and media personnel were lucky to avoid being split in half. Then again, Australia's batsmen also spent a good deal of time in the nets facing their own bowlers including Mitchell Starc, who if he was firing them in like he did in Saturday's game, was surely about as good preparation as you could get.

Clarke can hardly be crucified for speaking his mind, but the question arising out of the weekend was this: if he'd had reservations about how the Australians were training, why didn't he pipe up and mention it during the week? Or did he only realise they hadn't prepared adequately for what they'd face after the event?

While Clarke honed in on the mode of Australia's training, there were also a few queries about the captain's decision-making in his domain – on the ground. He pulled Starc out of the attack with New Zealand 4-92 and still needing 60 runs to win, replacing him with Mitchell Johnson rather than pressing on with Australia's standout bowler of Saturday. Generally, it's not a bad idea to hand the ball to Johnson, but he had been carted out from an earlier spell.

Starc, like just about every other bowler in history, wanted to stay on, but said he supported Clarke's call.  "Hindsight is a great thing," Starc said. "I think I was blowing a little bit, but Mitchy's done it really well for a long time. I'm not the captain so if I get told to have a break I'll have a break, otherwise I'll keep going. I asked to have another one but Pup is the captain and he's been a great captain for a long time, so I back every decision he makes."

As Clarke said before the Australians boarded a seven-hour flight to Perth on Sunday, the defeat to New Zealand was not the end of the world. Australia will probably rebound by crushing Afghanistan at the WACA on Wednesday and end up cruising into the quarter-finals.  After a long and often strained summer, though, their other challenge is a continuing one: to hold it all together behind the scenes.