Australia to conduct ‘meaty’ review after Sri Lanka flop

Melbourne (Reuters): Cricket Australia will pore over its high performance systems in a ‘meaty’ review following the 3-0 test series whitewash to Sri Lanka, chief executive James Sutherland has said.

Australia lost their world number one ranking in tests due to the series defeat and burnished their reputation as home-track bullies after their batsmen again proved hapless against spin bowling on turning wickets.

With a huge challenge in the subcontinent looming against India in less than six months, Sutherland said probing questions were being asked of the national set-up.

“Are some of the fundamental things that we are doing to prepare our players to perform well and be highly competitive in subcontinental conditions passing the test?” Sutherland said in comments published by Fairfax Media.

“I think that’s where the review gets a little bit more meaty and challenging and more fundamental, going right down into questioning our high performance systems as well.”

Sutherland’s comments come days after former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden slammed the high performance unit for having too much power over the team and selections.

Hayden claimed head coach and selector Darren Lehmann and the high performance unit headed by former rugby international Pat Howard were undermining the players’ ability to build a strong culture.

“The players have got to actually wrestle back some of their own power from within rather than listening to your physios, your strength and conditioning coaches, your high performance manager and even your coach for that matter and actually dig in as a group and build the culture,” Hayden, a former team mate of Lehmann, fumed on local radio station Triple M.

Australia hired Sri Lanka spin great Muttiah Muralitharan as a coaching consultant to help their batsmen prepare for the South Asian nation’s pitches but many appeared clueless when facing veteran left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who took 28 wickets and was named man-of-the-series.

Cricket Australia also regularly sends ‘A’ and youth teams to the subcontinent but some were failing to adapt, Sutherland said.

“To be a bona fide international cricketer in this day and age you need to be able to adapt to conditions in Australia, conditions in England, conditions in the subcontinent...wherever you play,” he said.

“And that adaptability is something that needs to be reviewed because some are adapting and some aren’t.”

Australia gained some consolation from the Sri Lanka tour on Wednesday, with the one-day side winning the fourth match to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.

Warner criticises pitches after series win

AFP: Australian skipper David Warner criticised preparation of Sri Lanka’s pitches following his side’s series-clinching one-day international victory against the hosts, saying his batsmen were being prevented from scoring big totals.

Warner lauded his teammates for their six-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the fourth ODI on Wednesday, which handed the tourists an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Australia easily chased down their target of 213 in just 31 overs as Aaron Finch smashed 55 off 19 balls while George Bailey hit an unbeaten 90 after Sri Lanka struggled to 212 all out in their 50 overs.

Warner, whose side suffered their first Test whitewash against the hosts last month, said the sluggish pitches were not ideal for ODI cricket.

“It’s hard to gain momentum when the wickets prepared are like this,” Warner, who took over as captain after the second ODI while Steve Smith is rested, told reporters.

“It’s a little bit disappointing from our point of view because it’s not the way we like to play. We like to play an aggressive brand of cricket. We like to entertain the crowd.”

England recorded the highest ODI score in history on Tuesday -- 444 for 3 in 50 overs against Pakistan at Trent Bridge -- while Australia and Sri Lanka have struggled to get past 200 in their series.

“When you see games like the England match last night -- that’s what I love about cricket. I love that kind of atmosphere, and that’s why as a youngster I went to watch the game.

“But if you come here and you play five games like that, on wickets like they have here at the moment, it is going to be very, very tough to draw a big crowd all the time,” Warner said.

Australia, ranked number one in the 50-over format, finally seemed to master the slow Sri Lankan tracks after scraping past the hosts in their first two victories in Colombo and Dambulla.

Finch, who equalled the record for the fastest 50 by an Australian -- achieved in 18 balls -- gave the visitors a rocket start.

“It’s always awesome to have one of your players go off like that and for me it is more of a watching tour to be honest,” said Warner.

“I’ve been up the other end or in the dugout watching the guys go about it. But it’s fantastic - I love that Finch comes out and plays his game.

“That’s how we play. That’s the Australian way,” said Warner.