Former Australia coach, Mickey Arthur slammed Australian cricketers’ attitude of being boorish and arrogant.
Meanwhile, he also accused them and Cricket Australia of being unwilling to improve the culture within the game.
Arthur coached Australia till 2013 before Darren Lehmann took over the reigns. He further feels the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa was the culmination of years of inaction.
“Despite the generational change, independent reviews and too many behavioural spot fires to list, Cricket Australia and the national team had demonstrated no real willingness or desire to improve the culture within their organisation from season to season,” he wrote on www.playersvoice.com.au.
The current Pakistan coach also expressed his disappointment to see the Australian cricket team over the last few years.
“The way they’ve gone about their business hasn’t been good, and it hasn’t been good for a while,” he added.
However, Arthur admitted he tried to change the culture within the dressing room but failed. The 49-year old added he was not blameless and there were decisions he had made during his time that he would change.
During his tenure, four cricketers served a one-match ban for failing to complete a written task set during a disastrous tour of India in 2013.
Meanwhile, he welcomed the decision by Cricket Australia, saying CA needed to make a stand. Former skipper Steven Smith along with his deputy Warner got 12 months ban while Bancroft got nine months.
Also, Warner will never be considered for the captaincy role again. However, Smith and Bancroft cannot lead an Australian team for the next two years.
“Australian cricket has been in an ivory tower for too long. They had to take decisive action. If they didn’t, things would inevitably return to the way they had been, and another major incident would’ve been inevitable,” he concluded.
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