Waugh urges JL to keep the ‘Australian way’

Former captain Steve Waugh has warned against an 'overreaction' to the ball-tampering saga and urged new coach Justin Langer to maintain Australia's "combative" approach to the game.

Cricket Australia is currently awaiting the outcomes of two separate reviews launched following the scandal, which led to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft being suspended.

Waugh concedes the behaviour of the Australian side under the leadership of Smith and Warner had gone too far on occasions in recent years, but he says there's no need to make major changes to the way the game is played and administered in Australia.

"People are talking about no sledging in the game of cricket," Waugh told Triple M. "You've got to be careful how you play, but the Australian way is always to be combative, to be positive and to have a bit of a chat out on the field.

"As long as it doesn't cross the line, we've got to play to our style. So hopefully Justin will keep that intact.

"There's always a knee-jerk reaction when things don't go well and you have reviews. We had the Argus review a few years ago which I was a part of and now we've got two reviews going concurrently. I'm not really sure what the mission statement is of those reviews.

"As Ricky Ponting said, there was no need for a review six months ago when the side was beating England 4-0 in the Ashes. We've got to be really careful that we don't overreact to it."

But the 52-year-old cited Australia's reaction to the dismissal of South African AB de Villiers in the Durban Test last March - which led to spinner Nathan Lyon being fined by the ICC - as proof that the current players need to "pull it back a little bit" at times. 

"There's probably been occasions where the team has looked a little bit out of control on the field with the chat and the way they've reacted after they've taken a wicket," he said.

"AB de Villiers was a case in mind; he's the best batsman in the world and they dropped the ball at his feet and they carried on with the extra celebrations.

"You don't need that sort of stuff. Once you've got the wicket, you've got the wicket.

"So I think we've got to pull it back a little bit, but we don’t want to delve too deep and cause issues that maybe aren't there.”

Langer, who was unveiled as Darren Lehmann's replacement as coach this week, agreed that tweaks rather than mass changes to the side's behaviour are needed.

"I think the public will be disappointed if we don't play good, hard, competitive cricket," he said. "That said, we can also modify our behaviours."