Warne calls for domestic changes

A fired-up Shane Warne has taken aim at critics of retiring Test captain Michael Clarke and said Australia "needs to be better losers".

Warne rubbished criticism form former players and coaches of Clarke's captaincy and style, taking particular umbrage with former coach John Buchanan's criticism that Clarke had 'eroded' the Baggy Green culture during his captaincy.

Australia's greatest Test wicket-taker said Australia needed to "cop it on the chin" that England were better and focus on how to improve rather than "taking cheap shots and looking for scapegoats".

Warne joined the chorus of calls for Australia's domestic competitions to switch to the English Dukes ball and called for an overhaul of the ground conditions around Australia.

"We have to look at the conditions we are playing in domestic cricket," Warne said on Triple M's Hot Breakfast program.

"Every ground we played at in Australia in domestic cricket had a unique characteristic, whether it was a unique seaming, swinging ball in Brisbane or a fast, bouncy track in Perth.

"All the players that were coming up and playing for Australia were used to different conditions. At moment in domestic cricket our wickets are too similar.

"So when we get on a flat track we are very, very good and tough to beat. When we get on anything moving it shows our techniques aren't great.

"And that's why we lost the Ashes, because England were better than us."

Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager of Team Performance, Pat Howard, said CA would look at "greening up practice pitches and maybe getting batsmen up to Brisbane to practice on fresh pitches during the wet season".

"It has obviously been an issue for us to adapt to conditions in other countries," Howard told News Corp. "We are being criticised for being flat-track bullies only. To be a good team you have got to be better than that and play well in all conditions."

Howard added CA would consider at the introduction of the Dukes ball into Shield cricket on a trial basis but Warne said the switch should be made permanently.

"The Kookaburra ball goes soft, it's no good, it doesn't do enough," said Warne.

"We need to use the Dukes ball, it does more. It swings more and it seams more, so why aren't we using it?

"Let's use the Dukes ball so then we know whenever we go on a flat wicket if it doesn't start swinging and seaming we're going to be fine, but our technique will be good enough if it does swing and seam."

Cricket Australia has been using the Dukes ball in the Under-17 and Under-19 national championships for the past three seasons, and it may be used in the Sheffield Shield in the lead-up to the 2019 Ashes tour of the UK.

"It's something that we've thought about and will be discussing with the High Performance Managers in each state," Howard said this week.

"We may give consideration to using a Dukes ball in Shield competition in the two seasons leading up to the next Ashes series in the UK. That could involve using a Kookaburra ball for the first half of the season and a Dukes ball for remainder of the year.

"There are no contractual obligations around cricket balls."

Warne also took aim at former Australia coach John Buchanan who claimed this week that Clarke had "eroded the culture of the Baggy Green" during his tenure as captain.

Warne, a long-time critic of Buchanan, pulled no punches and lay the blame for Australia's current batting woes at the feet of the former coach.

"For the 10 years or however long John Buchanan was the national coach, he was going around lecturing and telling (state) coaches what they should be doing," Warne said.

"He lost the art of batting, the technique of doing it tough and hanging in there and surviving, because he didn't understand the game.

"The kids coming through were concentrating on different things rather than the proper technique we (Warne's generation) learnt. Buchanan wasn't teaching the right stuff to the next generation and we're seeing that now with the techniques."