Hopeful Clarke won't jump ship "As a captain you probably take it more personally when the team doesn't have as much success as you would like, which probably just makes me work harder" - Australian captain Michael Clarke. The ship appears to be sinking but Michael Clarke will not be jumping. As the shadow of a possible seventh straight Test defeat looms at Old Trafford - an unwanted record the captain says no one would be proud of - he has dismissed outright suggestions of a premature retirement. There have been suggestions of such an eventuality for a while, tied to a theory that his long-running and chronic back problem, coupled with Australia's woes, would prompt the 32-year-old to give the game away even as early as the close of the next home summer. Think Australia and its batting is in a parlous state of affairs? Well, imagine then what the picture would look like if Clarke pulled the pin for good. Fortunately, he insists that is not his plan. "I'm not ready to walk away from cricket," Clarke declared on the eve of the third Ashes Test starting on Thursday. I love the game as much now as I ever have, that's for sure. I have no intention to walk away from this game right now. Clarke's condition - he has degenerative discs in his lower back - was diagnosed at age 17 and has been a recurring issue for him since then. Up until March, however, it had never stood between him and playing a Test. That run of 92 matches was broken in Delhi, when he flew home before the fourth and final Test of the disastrous tour of India, his back screaming at the constant flexing and rotating required of him as an elite cricketer. A perennial challenge for him, he knows it is not going away, and has admitted repeatedly before that he does not see his twilight years in the international game extending, like the now departed Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, into his late thirties. It is not in his DNA to give up, though. Fiercely competitive, it is obvious the team's six straight defeats - one short of matching Australia's worst losing streak, compiled between 1884 and 1887 - is as painful for Clarke as their leader as the physical discomfort he continues to endure. A captaincy that began so encouragingly - with a series win in Sri Lanka, a thrilled tied campaign in South Africa, a 4-0 thrashing of India and then victory in the Caribbean - has all come a bit unstuck. From winning nine of his first 13 as captain, and losing only two of them, to winning only three of his past 11 in charge, and all of them against Sri Lanka at home. Not that anyone can point fingers at his deeds on the ground. He has scored a remarkable 20 per cent of Australia's runs since becoming captain and shown himself a bold and instinctive tactician. If the deckhands are on strike, though, it doesn't matter how well you can steer. Having now seen both sides of the fence, featuring in Australia's 16 consecutive wins between 2005 and 2008, the only member of the present team to have played a Test at Old Trafford is at least partly motivated to go on by the desire to lead them out of the mire and back to a position of eminence. Yeah it's extra drive I guess... it certainly gets you out of the bed in the morning. Generally around five o'clock," Clarke said. As a captain you probably take it more personally when the team doesn't have as much success as you would like, which probably just makes me work harder. I'm in it to achieve all I can as captain of this team and as a player. I feel like my game still has a lot of improvement left in it. That's why I come to training and work my backside off every day. When I think I can't get any better and I have nothing else to give to the team then my time is finished. Twenty years since Shane Warne's Ball of the Century Australia return to the site of that historic moment trying to avoid history. The record books say they haven't lost a Test at Old Trafford since 1981 but should that streak be broken they will not only concede the Ashes but share an unwanted mark that has stood for 126 years. Unfortunately, or fortunately, records are made to be broken. This is one we don't want to break," Clarke said. I was part of the team that won 16 in a row, so I guess I'm seeing both sides. The reality is you want to win every time you walk out on to the field. But you have to perform at your best to do that. If we don't and we lose this Test match, we'll hold a record that I certainly won't be proud of and I don't think anyone in the current team will be proud of. That said, there is not a hint of resignation in his voice. That's just not how Clarke operates. I'm confident we can win this Test match.