Waugh's call for return to roots

Premier cricket's unique challenges provide an ideal environment in which top-flight players can improve their mental resilience as well as hone technical prowess, according to former Australia captain Steve Waugh.

Waugh said he struggled to understand why elite cricketers were routinely rested from Premier Cricket (as the 'grade' cricket competition is now known) fixtures when their playing schedule and fitness rendered them available, and revealed he regularly used club commitments to test himself in preparation for high-pressure international duties.

Among the 42 recommendations outlined in the independent culture review, which was voluntarily commissioned by Cricket Australia in the wake of last March's ball-tampering scandal, was for top-level men's players to reconnect with the game's grassroots through stronger involvement at grade level.

In addition, the support for banned players Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft to have their sanctions lifted is, in part, driven by a belief the trio aren't gaining adequate preparation for a possible return to international ranks because they are denied first-class match practice.

However, Waugh – while not directly addressing the debate surrounding the penalties imposed on the three players for breaching CA's Code of Conduct – claimed that during his two-decade international career he welcomed every opportunity to turn out for his Sydney club, Bankstown.

He said the pressure to perform at a level where elite players are expected to dominate, coupled with the absence of acclaim and privilege that accompanies players when they appear in first-class company, made Premier Cricket a pure exam of raw ability.

"In a lot of ways, I practiced my mental toughness playing grade cricket because it's harder to do well," Waugh told cricket.com.au prior to this week's release of the Ethics Centre review.

"You're expected to go out and get a hundred, you're expected to be successful, there's no crowd, there's no-one watching, there's no TV, but yet you've still got to perform.

"To me that was training for my mental toughness, because if I could do it there then it was easier to replicate it under pressure.

"Scheduling is hard, definitely, but I know when I was playing, I was away exactly the same number of days as the (top-level) guys are now.

"Maybe it's more intense, more international cricket (today), but I think sometimes it's an easy cop-out for guys to be told 'you need a rest' or 'you're about to go into the danger zone, there might be an injury'.

"I just can't understand that players are being pulled out of grade cricket because they've got a Futures League match next week, or they've got an under-17 or under-19 competition.

"We're not building resilience in the players anymore."

Waugh, who played 168 Tests and 325 one-day internationals between 1985 and 2004, acknowledged that players required workload management to avoid injury and maintain the integrity of any rehabilitation programs.

But he believes removing players from the line of active duty at the first hint of a 'niggle', or effectively wrapping them in cotton wool between high-level competition can be counter-productive to producing robust, resilient athletes.

"To be successful at the top level you've got to be tough, you've got to play through injuries," he said.

"I don't believe that players are taught now, or can play through injuries, because straight away they're sent off to have an MRI (scan) or are told 'you've got to have two weeks' rest'.

"You've got to be responsible as well, you've got to monitor injuries, but I think there are times when you can play to get stronger, and get better for it.

"Surely it can't hurt guys at that top level to keep bowling and keep batting?

"To go back and play grade cricket is fantastic, that's what I did every chance I had, I went back and played for Bankstown.

"Yeah, I was a bit tired and a bit fatigued, but I loved the opportunity of representing my local club, and I think we've lost that."

The 145-page review into Australian cricket's corporate and men's team culture that was released last Monday found practices implemented following the 2011 Argus Review – of which Waugh as part – into team performance had spawned a 'win without counting the cost' mentality.

Waugh conceded that the teams he led from 1999 until 2004, while statistically among the most successful that international men's cricket has known, were also perceived as being overtly aggressive in pursuit of on-field success.

The 53-year-old admitted there is a fine distinction between uncompromising competitiveness and unnecessary combativeness, but he does not believe the practices of Australia's men's team under his leadership were vastly different from those that came before and after.

"We were considered ruthless as well, but to me being ruthless is maximising your potential," he said.

"And I think the best way to win is to execute your skills well, it's not by talking.

"I never saw anyone really affected too much by talking on the field and, in fact, the great players love it, they want you to talk and all of a sudden it backfires.

"The reality is there's going to be talk out on the field – a Test match is six or seven hours (per day), so there's going to be banter between players, but you don't want it to be crossing the line.

"Nine times out of 10 – or possibly more – we stuck by that.

"Occasionally players got out of line, but you pull them back pretty quick."

Among the seven recommendations that CA has pledged to consider from the report– in addition to the 34 they have agreed to implement, or are already in place – were calls for umpires to be granted send-off authority, and for the role of men's team vice-captain to be "de-coupled" from the captaincy.

Waugh noted the possibility of a soccer-style red and yellow card system, whereby players could be warned and then ordered from the field for engaging in poor behaviour or breaching the game's laws, was discussed a decade ago when he was a member of the MCC's World Cricket Committee.

"I don't know how it would play out in a match, under what situation, but I think the warning is a good idea and if you continue to step over then potentially the red card, and you're off," he said.

"It would be tough to enforce, but it's worth discussing.

"You don't want it to get out of control like it did a bit with the South Africa-Australia series (earlier this year), and even Australia-England last (summer).

"It didn't look like there was a good vibe out on the field.

"I've played in Test matches where it's tough, but at the end of the day you're pretty friendly with the opposition.

"You realise it's a game of Test cricket, it's tough, but I think it got more personal over the last 12-18 months."

The recommendation to alter the role of vice-captain was made to prevent a potential conflict of on-field ambitions between the team's designated leader and a deputy who might covet the top job, or be keen to exercise influence to prove their own captaincy credentials.

CA has already moved to address that issue in part, with the appointment of dual vice-captains for the Test team (Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh) and the ODI set-up for the upcoming Gillette Series against South Africa (Hazlewood and Alex Carey).

In the lead-up and immediate aftermath of his captaincy appointment, Waugh felt friction and occasionally competition from his then-deputy Shane Warne, before the leg spinner was deposed as vice-captain following an off-field controversy and replaced by Adam Gilchrist.

Waugh claimed that the prospect of a lieutenant actively eyeing the top job has likely been happening "since the day dot" but he endorsed the idea of appointing dual vice-captains as one worth trialling in the hope of establishing an optimal leadership structure.

"You want aspirational people in your side, as long as they toe the line at the right time," he told cricket.com.au last week.

"You've got to have people ready to go into that position, you've got to train some people up, as long as they're not stepping on toes, going behind the scenes and doing things a different way.

"That has happened in the past, I think every captain has experienced that to some degree, but I always thought in my team, I was the captain and I had 10 vice-captains.

"I think that's the way you should look at it.

"That everyone has got an opinion that should be valued and the more the better, but at the end of the day as a captain you've got to decide what's right and wrong, and do it your way."