Wednesday, 13 March 2013
13 March 2013 Last updated at 10:23 GMT By Nick Bryant BBC News, Sydney 
Watson was dropped from the team to face India in the third Test Were one to build a prototype of an Australian international cricketer, it would surely resemble Shane Watson. Australia's vice-captain is blonde, broad-shouldered, lantern-jawed and often gelled.
It is easy to imagine him performing surf-life saving duties at Bondi, or in younger years, playing the high school heartthrob on an afternoon soap.
When he strides to the crease at the start of his innings, it looks not only as if he has emerged from the pavilion but also stepped straight out of central casting.
In the space of a dramatic few days however a talented, if injury-prone, all-rounder who should truly be the poster boy of Australian cricket has become persona non grata in the national set-up.
After Australia's humiliating defeat to India in the second test at Hyderabad - where they became the first side in test history to declare in the first innings but then lose by an innings - players were asked to identify three areas of possible improvement.
Watson's failure to hand in his homework, along with the bowlers Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and batsman Usman Khawaja, was met by a fourth-form style punishment: suspension from the test team to face India in the third test match.
'Extremely harsh'To some it was a ridiculous over-reaction and a case of sporting micro-managerialism gone mad.
To others, it was just punishment for failing to perform a routine task over a couple of rest days when there were few other demands on the highly remunerated players' time.
Some say Australian cricket is in crisis, with the team missing former captain Ricky Ponting To those who observe player politics closely, it was also another indication of a divided dressing room.
Watson delivered his own verdict by leaving the team hotel and catching a plane home. Not for him the five-star naughty corner. Besides, his wife Lee is heavily pregnant, and understandably he wants to attend the birth of their first child.
Returning home to Sydney, he called his suspension "extremely harsh".
He also aimed some stout words at Cricket Australia's high-performance manager, Pat Howard, a former international rugby player, who told reporters that Watson was only "sometimes" a team player.
"He has come from a rugby background," Watson told the press pack, which awaited him in the arrivals hall, "and he hasn't been in and around cricket very long."
'Embarrassment'The team management however has no regrets. Michael Clarke said that players had to "uphere" to certain standards (with a 100-plus batting average over the past 12 months, fans will surely forgive him the invention of the word "uphere").
Continue reading the main storyI've never heard anything so stupid in all my life - it's not under 6s - this is Test cricket”End Quote Mark Waugh Former cricket batsman His coach, the South African Mickey Arthur, has called this a "line in the sand", and likened it to the England coach Andy Flower standing up to the former captain Kevin Pietersen.
Doubtless there is alliterative allure in the headline, Cricket in Crisis, but it also offers a neat summation of the travails on the India tour, where Australia has already lost the first two tests of a four match series.
With only 12 players from which to choose, it will struggle to field a balanced and match-winning side.
"The cricket world is laughing at Australia's embarrassment," writes the veteran ABC commentator, Jim Maxwell, the voice of the southern summer.
Former senior players, many of whom believe that the role of a team coach is solely for transportation, have been critical of what they see as the management's heavy-handedness. Witheringly so.
"I've never heard anything so stupid in all my life," protested the former batsman, Mark Waugh. "It's not under 6s - this is Test cricket."
Darren Lehmann, the former all-rounder who now coaches Queensland, was also damning. "Adults we are," he tweeted, "not schoolboys."
'Play better'Nor have former England stars missed the opportunity for a good sledge.
A number of sportsmen have come to Watson's defence "Bowl better, bat better, catch better, communicate better… just bloody play better," was the former England captain Michael Vaughan's mocking appraisal. "Didn't realise you had to do an essay to get a selection these days?"
Others however have backed Cricket Australia's tough line. Daniel Zammit, who has acted as Usman Khawaja's agent, believes the players only have themselves to blame.
"Cricketers are not special," he said, and should abide by standards that have long been the norm in rugby league, rugby union and other professional codes.
"On Monday in India, Mickey Arthur treated his players no different to other team sports players," he said.
"For this we should be thankful that our national head coach has the 'stones' to stand up and be a leader with big decisions meant to fix a team attitude problem."
Certainly, the managerial culture of Australian cricket is nothing new.
John Buchanan, who coached the national side during its period of dominance in the Naughties, was famed for his Power Point team briefings and for pushing books under the hotel doors of his players that he thought would improve them as men and players.
In preparation for the 2006 Ashes, he even took the team on a boot camp in outback Queensland - much to the displeasure of Shane Warne.
The main difference between then and now is the quality of the cricketing personnel. Buchanan had charge of a team of legends - Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden,
The present outfit is short on talent, experience and arguably aptitude.
Team spirit also seems to be a problem. There is a backstory to the present dispute, which involves a disagreement from the night that the retiring test great Mike Hussey played his final match in Sydney.
In celebration, he wanted to kick back with a few cold beers in the dressing room and at the team hotel. Clarke insisted that the team go on a cruise of Sydney harbour onboard the billionaire businessman James Packer's boat. On that disputed night, Watson stayed onshore with Hussey.
With an Ashes tour only a few months away, all is not well within the Australian camp, where team morale has suffered too from the absence of the influential former captain Ricky Ponting.
Only six years ago, cricket was a unipolar world in which Australia was the sole superpower. Understandably, the Baggy Greens have not yet recovered from the loss of its generation of greats.
They played for an Ashes and World Cup-winning team, for which the post-match rituals mainly involved beer rather than bullet points.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013 0
Wicketkeeper Matt Prior says England are aware of Australia's disciplinary problems but are focused only on their next Test against New Zealand.
Australia, who play England in back-to-back Ashes series later this year, have suspended four players for their third Test in India.
"It's not passed us by," Prior told BBC Sport ahead of the second Test.
"But it is not something that we are interested in at all. We've got a huge Test match coming up."
"The absence of the four players may well galvanise the Aussies and make them an even tighter unit by the time they travel to England this summer. It must never be forgotten that no individual is bigger than the team and for every action taken there is a consequence."
The second Test starts at 21:30 GMT in Wellington on Wednesday and comes after England fought back to draw the first Test in Dunedin.The Kiwis spent 170 overs in the field during England's second innings in Dunedin, when England scored 421-6 as they ground out a draw after bouncing back from scoring just 167 in their first innings.
"Our main focus is on starting a lot better than in the last Test," added Prior. "I'm sure the Kiwi bowlers will be feeling it.
"Any seamer bowling 40 overs is a mammoth effort. I'd rather have been batting for 170 overs than fielding, let's put it that way."
Meanwhile, Australia on Monday dropped quartet Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja after they failed to make a presentation to the team's management on how to improve following defeats in the opening two Tests against India.
All-rounder Watson, 31, left the tour after the decision in order to return home to be with his pregnant wife and says he is considering his Test future.
The punishment of the four players has been criticised by Australia's former captain Allan Border and ex-batsman Mark Waugh, although the team's current skipper Michael Clarke defended the decision.
"If you play for Australia there is a lot that comes with that and standards, discipline, culture," said Clarke. "That is all a big part of what we are talking about here.
"It's not the fact that they didn't do their homework, to represent this team we have high standards, we need to have those to get the best out of every person in this team.
"It's not just about one incident, there's been a number of things where we haven't been giving ourselves every single opportunity to be the best individual players we can be."
Australia are third in the Test rankings and paceman Pattinson, 22, believes the punishment could be what was needed to send out a message to the team's players.
"I believe that this last resort of guys missing a Test match is not just because of homework not being put in. I think it is maybe more of an underlying culture that has been happening and at some stage they have to break that culture and get the side back playing together and in the right frame of mind."
Former Australia batsman Damien Martyn
"I think this is the kick in the bum to make you really realise what we've got and what we really want, and that is to get to number one," said Pattinson."It sends a message to everyone here that we're playing Test cricket and you have to give everything for the team.
"No individual comes higher than the team and I think this is a perfect example.
"So leading into this massive summer over in England and then into the Ashes back home, this is just that stepping stone which could lead to something special in the future."
He added: "One day we could be a great team but at the moment we're not. If we can build a good culture then one day we'll be a great team."
Australia play the first of five Tests against England on 10 July at Trent Bridge, before the return Ashes series starts in Brisbane in November.
Teams for New Zealand v England second Test:
New Zealand (from):B McCullum (Captain), P Fulton, H Rutherford, K Williamson, R Taylor, D Brownlie, BJ Watling (wkt), N Wagner, I Butler, T Southee, T Boult, B Martin, T Latham
England (from): AN Cook (Captain), NRD Compton, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, JE Root, MJ Prior (wkt), SCJ Broad, ST Finn, JM Anderson, MS Panesar, CR Woakes
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Australia have dropped vice-captain Shane Watson and three players for the third Test in India for a breach of discipline.
Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson plus Usman Khawaja will also sit out.
The four failed to make a presentation on how to improve the team following defeats in the opening two Tests.
Watson left the tour after the decision, although, with his wife pregnant, there was always a contingency for him to leave early.
Shane Watson : Tests 40 Runs 2558 Wickets 62
Mitchell Johnson : Tests 50 Runs 1403 Wickets 205
James Pattinson : Tests 9 Runs 218 Wickets 39
Usman Khawaja: Tests 6 Runs 263 Wickets 0
Talking about his decision to drop the four players, coach Mickey Arthur said: "This is a line in the sand."Australia, who play England in back-to-back Ashes series later in 2013, have endured a miserable time on their latest tour, suffering heavy defeats in the opening matches of the four-Test series.
They lost by eight wickets in Chennai in the opening Test to an Indian team inspired by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 224 runs off 265 balls in the home side's first innings.
The manner of their second Test defeat was even worse, with Australia losing by an innings and 135 runs after being bowled out for only 131 in their second innings.
Worried about his team's form, Arthur asked each member of his squad to produce, by email or in person, three ideas about how the team could improve.
The players had five days to provide their views but the quartet failed to make their points at a team meeting.
Hoggard 'baffled' by punishmentsAlthough all-rounder Watson, 31, has returned home, pacemen Mitchell Johnson, 31, James Pattinson, 22, and batsman Khawaja, 26, will be considered for the fourth Test.
South African Arthur, Australia's first overseas coach, told a news conference: ''I asked the players at the end of the last game to give me an individual presentation.
"I wanted three points from each of them - technically, mentally and team - as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, about how we were going to get ourselves back into the series.
''I believe those four players unfortunately did not meet my requirements so those four players are not available for selection for this Test match.''
He added: "We've given an expectation that is spelt out and although this incident might seem very small in isolation, this is a line in the sand moment for us as a unit in our quest to become the best in the world.
Australia travel to England in the summer for a five-Test Ashes series that begins at Trent Bridge on 10 July and runs until late August.
Alastair Cook's team then fly down under in October to prepare for a five-Test series that starts on 21 November and ends in Sydney with the final Test on 3 January, 2014.
''This has been the toughest decision that myself, manager Gavin Dovey and captain Michael Clarke have ever had to make.''It's a tough, tough decision, but the ramifications for that within our team structure and the message that it sends to all involved in Australian cricket is that we are pretty serious about where we want to take this team.''
Arthur's stance has drawn criticism from former Australia players.
Ex-captain Allan Border told Fox Sports News: "I'm surprised that's the penalty for something so mundane. It seems like it was on a schoolboy tour or something. It's an over the top reaction."
Mark Waugh added: "I've never heard anything so stupid in all my life. It's not under-sixes - this is Test cricket."
Australia now head into the third Test at Mohali on Thursday with 13 players to choose from - and that could drop to 12 if Matthew Wade fails to recover in time from an ankle injury.
The first Ashes Test begins on 10 July at Trent Bridge.
