Steven Smith checks every box

If Australia's selectors had written a wishlist of the qualities they wanted in Michael Clarke's successor, it would have read like a profile of Steven Smith. Captaincy experience. Check. Captaincy success. Check. A good cricket brain. Check. Established in the Test team. Check. In good form. Check. Impeccable off-field conduct. Check. Widely respected by his peers. Check. Young, with a long future ahead of him. Checkmate, Brad Haddin.

The conservative approach for Rod Marsh and his selection panel this week would have been to allow Haddin, as the vice-captain, to ascend to the top job, and then reassess when more was known about Clarke's future. But Clarke has conceded his body may not allow him to play for Australia again. If he doesn't know and the medical staff don't know, what hope do the selectors have? The time to look beyond Clarke is now.

It is by necessity a rushed decision. Haddin, at 37, is likely to retire after next year's Ashes in England. The selectors might then have installed Smith as vice-captain to Clarke. That would have allowed a grooming period, such as Clarke had from 2008 under Ricky Ponting, until he was thrust into the Test captaincy in the first week of 2011. Clarke remains Australia's captain for now, but there is a real possibility that Smith might lead in the 2015 Ashes.

As little as two months ago, the team management was still cautiously letting Smith go about his own business without handing him too much responsibility. During the warm-up game against Pakistan A in Sharjah in October, Clarke and Haddin were both off the field and Chris Rogers was in charge. Smith was not even the third captaincy choice then; now he's about to lead his country into a Test match.

But if Sharjah was about on-field minutiae, this is big-picture time. Smith might not have been groomed as Clarke was, but he has led New South Wales and the Sydney Sixers to domestic titles, and has also captained Australia A. Throughout his youth career he led representative teams and was one of the Sutherland club's youngest ever captains. Marshalling bowlers and fielders comes as organically to Smith as the twitches before he faces up to a bowler.

This is a man who quit high school at 17 to pursue a cricket career, a man who by his own admission has never had another job besides the game he loves. He has been immersed in cricket his whole life, and at 25 is ready to lead his country. If Clarke's Test career is over - the Australians certainly hope it isn't - and Smith's position as captain becomes permanent, it might also allow him the longest tenure in the job since Allan Border.

Stephen Fleming and Graeme Smith are among the most well-regarded captains of the past few decades and both started while younger than Steven Smith. Both men learnt and grew on the job, and provided invaluable leadership stability for a decade. It is impossible to predict whether Smith can achieve the same but if Clarke does not return, time will at least be on his side.

Unlike Clarke, who was in the midst of a form slump when he succeeded Ponting in 2011, Smith will take on the captaincy while in the form of his life. There are barely any remnants of his previous flashy, risky batting style; his technique has improved so greatly that he this week entered the top 10 of the ICC's Test batting rankings for the first time, after making a career-best 162 not out in Adelaide.

And if Smith's on-field pedigree has gone from immature to immaculate, his off-field reputation has remained pristine throughout. Mark Waugh, one of the four selectors who recommended the Cricket Australia board appoint Smith for the rest of this series, said that his character was a factor in making the decision.

"He hasn't been in trouble has he?" Waugh said on Fox Sports on Monday. "As far as I can remember ... I don't follow him around 24 hours a day, but he's a good young citizen, a good guy, everyone who's played with or against him has nothing but good words for Steve Smith. He's a smart cricketer, and there's no issues off the field as far as I'm concerned."

That should help the Australian public accept Smith for a position over which they feel a great deal of ownership. After all, Australia had its first Test captain 24 years before it had its first prime minister, and most cricket fans could name far more of Smith's predecessors than they could those of prime minister Tony Abbott.

Over the past 18 months, Smith's approval ratings have soared and now, at 25, he has received enough votes to lead his country. In an era when the country's politicians are beset by infighting and obsessed with quick fixes, Australia's cricket selectors have brought a forward-thinking approach to an even older national leadership position.