Waugh takes comfort from 80s nadir

Former captain Steve Waugh believes the way Australia responded to the shattering lows of the 1980s is proof that the current side can overcome the ball-tampering scandal that has seen them lose their coach, captain and vice-captain.

Waugh, whose own career spanned a crushing nadir and high watermark in Australian cricket, said the next 12 months will be "challenging" for the current group without their two best batsmen, banned duo Steve Smith and David Warner.

Speaking at the Cricket NSW awards night on Thursday, Waugh said his time in the game shows that a team can overcome the loss of its leading players to become the best in the world.

"When I first played for Australia back in '85-86, we’d just lost 16 players to the rebel tour of South Africa," Waugh said.

"Lillee, Chappell and Marsh retired. I played my first Test match and Allan Border had played more Test matches than the rest of the team combined.

"Eighteen months later we won the World Cup, and 18 months from there we were the No.1 Test side in the world.

"The next 12 months will be challenging but Australian cricket will overcome this."

The retirements of Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell at the start of 1984, and the two South African rebel tours in 1985-86 and 86-87, led to one of the least successful periods in Australian cricket.

The Aussies lost eight consecutive Test series and won just four of 33 Tests in three years between 1984 and 1987, during which time young players like Waugh were ushered into a side led admirably by Border.

But their shock 1987 World Cup triumph and equally surprising Ashes win in 1989 was the trigger for an unprecedented period of success for Australia in the 1990s and 2000s under the leadership of Border, Mark Taylor, Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

Waugh did warn, however, that Australia's batsmen face an enormous challenge to fill the sizeable hole in the order left by Smith and Warner, who this week accepted their 12-months sanctions from Cricket Australia.

Smith and Warner, the No.1 and No.5 ranked Test batsmen in the world, have been the backbone of an at-time fragile batting order in the past four years, scoring 41 of Australia's 77 Test hundreds since 2013.

"There will be some tough times ahead though," he said.

"You can’t lose (a total of) 44 centuries out of your batting line-up and expect things to be the same.

"It’s a great opportunity for young players, for all the NSW batsmen. There will be opportunities to be in that Australian cricket side.

"There’s no reason why we can’t be competitive."