Shane Warne's bold plan to fix Australian cricket
Spin legend Shane Warne says there is one glaring oversight he’d like to see changed to help Cricket Australia (CA) out of its current predicament.
The Aussie Test great says he’s willing to help out in his beloved sport and questions why more of his former international teammates haven’t been appointed as consultants.
The upheaval at CA continued to unfold this week, with executives Pat Howard and Ben Amarfio the latest powerful figures to depart the governing body.
In his column for the Herald Sun, Warne reckons the experienced of retired Test players should be used more to help bring through the next crop of Aussie talent.
“I put my hand up to Pat Howard a few times, told him I was available if they needed me,” Warne wrote.
“I’ve always been happy to get involved in any role if Cricket Australia thought I could help the team. I’m sure all the ex-players would be the same.
“We’ve got a lot of spinners coming through who I’ve helped in an informal role and I’m more than happy to help in a formal basis if required.
“Why not ask Glenn McGrath, offer him a contract to help with the fast bowlers?”
Warne said “we just think we are going to produce cricketers” but that wouldn’t happen until the right people were involved and the right environment was put in place.
“Everyone is jumping on the players because they are not performing but we have to take a step back and ask why? Are they good enough?” he wrote.
“The talent in Australia is good. It comes back to how they are being taught to play, more importantly the style they are being taught to play.”
Back to basics for beleaguered Aussies
Australia’s one-day captain Aaron Finch wants his beleaguered batsmen to ignore the gloom.
The Australians enter Friday’s fixture against South Africa in Adelaide on a seven-match losing streak in one-day internationals.
And the batting line-up enters with much public doubt after crumbling to 152 all out against the Proteas in a series-opening loss last Sunday.
Finch admits frequent recent collapses could be taking a toll on the psyche of his batting line-up.
“At times it has probably affected guys,” he said.
“No doubt, it has been a concern in both shorter formats.
“To get bowled out a couple of times in the UAE and then bowled out again the other day, it has been a bit of a theme unfortunately that we haven’t batted our allotted overs a lot.”
Finch said finding a solution was two-fold.
One, he said, was “summing up the conditions and using a little bit more cricket smarts”.
“There might be times when you have to go away from your natural game and play a little bit more of a defensive-type brand in terms of just getting through for time,” Finch said.
Two, bat in partnerships.
“It’s about getting back to the basics of partnerships and making sure that you connect with your partner when you first get out there,” he said.
“You know the first 10 or 15 balls of anyone’s innings is when your most vulnerable.
“So to just start the basics really well, just get that five, 10 run partnership – or if you go by balls, it might just be 10 balls between you and start to build that.
“When we talk about confidence in the batting group, it’s about not letting outside distractions affect your game.
“And there has been a lot of media about Cricket Australia; there’s a lot of media about our batting.
“But if you can put that to one side and focus on the next ball and really make sure that you’re committed to watching the ball and being 100 per cent committed to your partnership, I think that will go a long way to turning things around quickly.”
