Shrine call readies Aussies for battle
ELITE mateship is a cornerstone of new coach Justin Langer’s mantra for the Australian cricket team, an ideal reinforced with a humbling visit to World War I battlefields in Belgium and France.
The one-day squad, being led by Langer and new captain Tim Paine for Australia’s first international cricket since the South African ball tampering scandal forced a nationwide rejig, made the threeday trip ahead of the limited overs series against England.
More than two years of planning went in to the visit to locations including Fromelles, Passchendaele, Ypres, Pozieres, Amiens and the Sir John Monash Centre at the Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux.
At the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, Paine recited the Ode in the daily Last Post ceremony while Aaron Finch, Alex Carey, Jhye Richardson and D’Arcy Short laid two wreaths on behalf of the group.
“It was really special. I didn’t realise the magnitude of that until we got there,” Paine said after taking part in the ceremony.
“It was a bit overwhelming to be honest, and a privilege, just a young Australian cricketer getting too stand where we were, andnd to read the Ode, is a bit of an honour.
“I was expecting just us and a handful of people, but there were so many there, it was amazing. The magnitude of it hit me when I walked out to read the Ode and I realised how privileged and lucky I was to be given the right to do that.”
The squad is one of the most inexperienced to tour for Australia and as the team looks to forge a new identity, Paine said the lessons lealearned on the trip werwere about the imporimportance of the most basic elemelements necessary for successsuccess, anand getting through the toughest circumstances. “It’s been amazing to go through the battle grounds. It’s been a real eye-opener, the magnitude of it, the size of the cemeteries,” Paine said. “As a group coming over to England now to play cricket . . . the things we can take from the men who came over so long ago is the teamwork and the mateship and the hard work and the things they did for each other.”