Midway through Australia’s tour to India in 2013, Arthur, along with captain Michael Clarke and team manager Gavin Dovey, chose to stand down four players from the Australia team after they failed to complete a simple off-field task – to give three points on how the team could progress and three points on how players could progress as individuals – after their defeat in the
second Test at Hyderabad left them 2-0 down in the series with two to play.
The four players in question –
Shane Watson,
James Pattinson,
Usman Khawaja and
Mitchell Johnson – were controversially made ineligible for selection for the third Test of the series in a move that hung over Arthur for the remainder of his reign before he was replaced as Australia coach weeks before that year’s Ashes series in England by Darren Lehmann.