John Buchanan suggests team take fresh look at Spirit of Cricket pledge

FORMER Australian coach John Buchanan believes it is time for Ricky Ponting's team to revisit the Spirit of Cricket pledge that was signed during his tenure, and urged Shane Watson not to undo years of hard work and control his emotions.

Buchanan was coach in 2003 when Steve Waugh pledged to improve standards of behaviour by signing the Spirit of Cricket document, and believes it needs to reflect a new team and a new culture following an ill-tempered series against the West Indies during which four Australian players were found guilty of bad behaviour.

Buchanan, a Watson mentor, said the all-rounder, who was fined 15 per cent of his match fee for his overblown celebration of Chris Gayle's wicket, had made a concerted effort to control his emotions and improve his body language.

''My view would have been that he had moved on from there and learnt a lot more about his game and himself,'' Buchanan said. ''This particular outburst hopefully is an uncharacteristic blemish. Time will only tell as he is placed in more and more situations where his emotions and his responses to those emotions will be tested and will be seen.

''One would hope this is only a little blemish and he will continue what has been a marked improvement from where he was a few years ago.''

Ponting has promised to pull his players into line before the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan.

''One step would be for the group to revisit the Spirit of Cricket,'' Buchanan said. ''It was a foundation document so the current group may wish to move it in a direction that is more appropriate to themselves.

''[But] I wouldn't like to see the game sanitised so much that everybody was meek and mild on the field in an environment that requires intense competition, and with that comes certain animation.''

Cricket Australia said every Australian debutant committed to the Spirit of Cricket pledge as part of an induction overseen by Ponting, and a spokesman said chief executive James Sutherland supported the captain's move to address his players on their behaviour this week.

''He [Sutherland] has a lot of faith in Ricky's captaincy, and the fact that the onfield behaviour has been consistently good for such a long time is in part a tribute to Ricky's leadership,'' the spokesman said.

''They have taken a pledge to play hard but fair … For the past six years there has been the occasional blemish but by and large the players have got it right.''

Self-described ''obnoxious'' fast bowler Doug Bollinger was suitably contrite about his reprimand for kicking the pitch when an appeal was turned down in Adelaide, and said he would try to control his aggression from here on.

''Tempers flare, you get decisions that don't go your way, when you're trying your guts out, that's just the way it goes,'' said Bollinger, who was picked up on a stump microphone calling stubborn West Indies batsman Narsingh Deonarine ''scared'', in colourful language, during his second-innings 82 at Perth.

''You've got to sometimes control that [aggression],'' Bollinger said. ''I'll put my hand up, what happened in Adelaide wasn't the right thing to do. I'll make sure I don't do that again because I don't need that on my shoulders - people thinking that I'm a bit of a spoiled brat, so I'll try not to cross those lines.'