With the infamous ball-tampering saga still hanging like a dark cloud above Australian cricket, coach Justin Langer has promised to put the smiles back on when his side take on South Africa in the ODI series.
When the two teams last met in the Test series in South Africa earlier this year, the Newlands match was rocked by Australia skipper Steve Smith’s admission to tampering with the ball.
Smith, along with his deputy David Warner, was handed a one-year ban from international and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia while Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension.
But looking ahead to the five-match series against the same opponents, Australia coach Langer was hoping to change some of the mood.
“It’s sad, isn’t it. Everyone seems to be at each other. There’s lots of criticism,” he said of the atmosphere surrounding Australian cricket,” Langer said.
“What we can do is we can prepare well, we can play good cricket, and be entertaining and put on a good show so Australians can start smiling a bit.
“One thing sport can do and the Australian cricket can do is put smiles on faces rather than everyone throwing stones at each other.”
On the other hand, South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis expects the verbal sledging to be toned down a notch when the two sides meet again.
Du Plessis is expecting the sledging to be toned down.
“An Australia-South Africa series is always going to be competitive but I do suspect this series will be a little bit more toned down, especially from the Australian side,” he said.
“Not necessarily from a body language point of view, but maybe from a verbal point of view.”
Though the hosts will miss Smith and Warner, Proteas skipper Du Plessis still expects it to be a tough test.
“Whenever you get a chance to play against Australia it feels like you’re playing against a very good cricket team. When you look at what they’ve got in their squad at the moment on paper there are some fantastic names there with the ball and with the bat,” he said.
The first ODI between the two sides will get underway at Perth on Sunday.
