'Resilience' key to Test turnaround: Howard

Australia’s cricket supremo Pat Howard has acknowledged that both the current Test team and the system that underpins it are “under the pump” and has called for players to immediately show “resilience and adaptability”.

As rain forced the abandonment of day two of the second Commonwealth Bank Test in Hobart without a ball bowled, Howard and Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland faced up to some pointed questions about the current state of game in Australia.

And while Sutherland staunchly defended captain Steve Smith and explained the complexities of a global playing schedule that allowed just one round of Sheffield Shield matches prior to the summer’s first Test match, Howard identified a key theme that has run through a string of recent batting collapses.

During the 0-3 Test series whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka earlier in the year, and into the current home campaign against South Africa in which the Australians have lost 10-86 and 10-85 in consecutive Tests.

“We’re in the middle of a Test match and I want to see some resilience now and see the guys who can step up and take the opportunity,” said Howard, Cricket Australia’s Executive General Manager Team Performance who came to the role in the wake of the previous lean home summer against England in 2010-11.

“Because as a team we’re under the pump, as a system we’re under the pump and I think Australians expect that fight.

“That’s a fair enough expectation.”

Having watched his team bowled out for 85 in seamer-friendly conditions at Blundstone Arena on Saturday, Australia coach Darren Lehmann conceded that the batting return was “not good enough from an Australian cricket team” and that it was difficult to argue against describing it as a ‘crisis’.

But Howard, who is contracted in his role until next year and indicated today he will not be considering his future beyond that until the completion of the current Test summer, sought to clarify some of the other criticisms that have swirled around the team over the past days.

And which found voice during today’s prolonged weather break that saw persistent rain fall on Hobart from the early hours of Sunday morning until the day was formally called off at 2pm.

With a scheduled resumption at 10am Monday, with South Africa 5-171 and 86 runs ahead of Australia’s sub-pat first innings.

Howard said he had no issue with national selection chair Rod Marsh staying on in his role despite indicating his intention to stand down next year, and echoed Lehmann’s view that players are not receiving “mixed messages” from the selectors.

He also refuted suggestions from commentators at the ground that the Australian set-up features too many assistant and expert coaches providing input, pointing out that the structure has remained largely the same since Lehmann took over as coach in 2013 and led the team to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash.

And a World Cup win a year later, with most of Australia’s rival teams around the world boasting a similar level of coaching support.

“This is a great chance for him to re-invent,” Howard said when asked if it had been premature in extending Lehmann’s contract as coach until 2019 prior to the Test series in Sri Lanka earlier this year.

“He’s been contracted through until 2019 which is a huge year in the calendar, there’s an Ashes away and a World Cup (in the UK) back-to-back and we’ve got a young captain.

“I wanted to give the team and squad some stability so I don’t apologise for that, I take accountability for that.”

Howard also revealed he had discussed the domestic schedule in the lead-in to the last week’s opening Test in Perth – which saw Test players available for a solitary day-night fixture before returning to the Test format – with skipper Smith and his deputy David Warner prior to signing off on the calendar.

But he lauded Smith for his stand-out innings at Blundstone Arena yesterday, in which the Australia captain remained head and shoulders above all his teammates to finish unbeaten on 48 as all perished around him.

“I know the captain copped some criticism in the lead-in to this Test (following the 177-run loss to South Africa in Perth) and I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that (yesterday) was, in inverted commas, a captain’s knock,” Howard said.

“His resilience out there in the middle was fantastic, and some of his players need to look at how he did it, and take a lead from him.

“He stood up and I think he should be very proud of how he showed the rest the way.

“We need that fight, and that’s consistent from not only this week but others.”

Sutherland, who reiterated that the relentless international schedule meant compromise was inevitable in numerous areas of the game and that he hoped to see “less international cricket” in future to give it greater context, also went into bat for Smith.

He pointed out that the 27-year-old, who had barely turned 26 when appointed to replace Michael Clarke as Test skipper last year, is the youngest Australia Test captain since Kim Hughes’ elevation to the job in 1979.

And that regardless of the vicissitudes of results and perceptions that accompany them, he will remain in the job for a lengthy stint provided he maintains his fitness, form and appetite for the game.

“We’re certainly very conscious that Steve has come into the role much younger (than pervious Australia) captains and I don’t think people have really talked about this much or appreciated it,” Sutherland told ABC Radio’s Grandstand cricket coverage today.

“He’s come into this role much younger than any of his four or five predecessors.

“At the end of the day, I think (Allan) Border, (Mark) Taylor, (Steve) Waugh, (Ricky) Ponting and Clarke were between 29 and 34 when they came into captaincy of Australian teams.

“Steve (Smith) was 26, and in my time (as CA’s Chief Executive since 2001) two or three of them have come into the job and none of them have made an easy transition.

“It’s a big step up and a big challenge, even more so if you don’t have the players around you who are performing as well as they might or could.

“So that added challenge is there.

“But we have very high regard for Steve Smith as a person, as a leader and obviously as a cricketer.

“And we think that with his support and as he builds a team around him and they perform he’s got a very bright future as a leader for a long time to come.”