Alzrius
The EN World kitten
For what it's worth, what spheres clerics (and druids) had access to was tweaked slightly later on in the life of AD&D 2E. For instance, here's the listing as per the first volume of the Priest's Spell Compendium (affiliate link):Ah yes, page 33 of the first print of the PHB has this to say:
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The Complete Priest's Handbook notes that this is somewhat problematic, compared to the Priests of a Specific Mythoi, and suggests limiting them to Major Access to only three spheres (one of which must be All, and the other two are of the player's choice), as well as Minor Access to two spheres of the player's choice.
The Tome of Magic, however, does not assign the new Spheres to the Cleric class, though perhaps Sage Advice had something to say about it- Alzrius pointed out in a previous post that the deities from Legends & Lore had the new Spheres assigned to them starting in Dragon #198.
EDIT: to my knowledge, the Forgotten Realms books (and perhaps other books with Specialty Priests, such as From the Ashes) instead kept the Cleric as-is, justifying the greater power level of Specialty Priests in those settings.
Whether or not the Cleric should be powered down compared to the Priesthoods in Legends & Lore, Monstrous Mythology, and Dragon Magazine is left for the individual DM to decide, but given that these Priesthoods generally outstrip the ones in the CPH, I'm assuming the staff decided not to revise the PHB Cleric.
EDIT: I overlooked that, just prior this listing, it notes that all priests (cleric and otherwise) have access to the All sphere. It also notes the following:
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