Clarke's dramatic exit from the limited-overs segment of the tour was the talk of the nation yesterday, highlighting the intrusion of the personal on his professional life and casting a shadow over his seemingly inevitable ascension to the Test captaincy.

As of last night, Clarke was unsure of when he would be rejoining the team, though he was understandably keen to get back in time to take part in the Test series. The first Test begins at Wellington's Basin Reserve from March19.

His manager Chris White said, ''Michael has arrived home to support Lara through this difficult time.''

The announcement of the squad to play two Tests against New Zealand had been pencilled in for yesterday before Clarke's unexpected dash home to Sydney from New Zealand put matters on hold.

Clarke's exit from New Zealand was so hurried that some of his teammates were unaware he had left. He had only spoken to senior figures including captain Ricky Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen.

''He has gone home sorting out some personal stuff. Most of the players found out last [Monday] night or this morning,'' Ponting said after Australia claimed a six-wicket win in Hamilton and 2-1 lead in the five-match Chappell-Hadlee series.

''... The last thing that I said to him last night before he left was for him to take as much time as he needed and hopefully we can do the right thing over here and win the series without him.''

Bingle's only public actions yesterday were to post the message ''Wish you were here ...'' on the social networking site Twitter before she was seen flipping the bird to camera crews hovering around the couple's Bondi apartment in mid-afternoon.

The episode followed on from legal action Bingle has decided to take against her former love interest Brendan Fevola, the AFL player who took a nude photo of her during a brief relationship that has since circulated widely among footballers and been published in a women's magazine.

Tasmanian George Bailey was named as the limited overs replacement for Clarke.

It was a reward for his versatile batting and firm captaincy, which led the Tigers to victory over Victoria in the final of the Australian one-day domestic competition. AAP