Following Australia's loss to South Africa that saw them suffer their fifth straight Test defeat, coach Darren Lehmann revealed that his side were visited by some of Australia's greatest ever Test stars in a bid to motivate the side.
Former players turned media commentators Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, Shane Warne, Michael Slater and Tom Moody all walked through the change rooms following the defeat, speaking to several players in the hope of lifting their spirits.
“We've had legends come into the room and talk to all our guys,” Lehmann said.
“We've had guys, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, (came into the rooms) before.
“The young guys who are playing today looked up to them.
“We had the Channel Nine guys (Taylor, Healy, Warne and Slater) come in today and speak to us.
“They're all class players who have a great view of the game - we don't have all the answers, so you have to ask different people how you go about it.
“The players might pick up on one thing from a Mark Taylor or Shane Warne, or whoever it may be.
“That's how you get better and learn the game.
“Our training and preparation, to be fair, has been pretty good, I would say.
“But on the ground we haven’t been good.
“We have to look at all aspects of our game.”
With the third Test to begin in Adelaide next Thursday, all top order batsman have been sent back to the Sheffield Shield to find some form, with only David Warner and Steve Smith certain of returning to the Australian line-up for the day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval.
Despite what were sure to be inspiring words for the Test greats, Lehmann has said the time for talking is over, and actions need to be taken in order to turn this poor run of form around.
“We've talked a lot over the last few weeks, we talked a lot in Sri Lanka (last July and August’s 0-3 Test whitewash), and we talked a lot in South Africa (last month when the ODI team was defeated 0-5),” Lehmann said.
“The time for talking is probably done.
“We've actually got to make sure we're doing it on the ground.
“There'll definitely be change.
“The guys have got to play Shield cricket and by the end of the Shield games we'll have a (third Test) squad for you.
“We've got to make sure we go in the right direction for Australian cricket because at the moment we haven't been.
“So we've got to win some games.
“We've got to stop the rot to start with and play some good cricket again.
“There is a lot of good players there.
“It gets down to belief in what you're doing and how you go about it.
“We've got to make sure we have belief in the group going forward.
“Right now, everyone is obviously really low but the sun will come up tomorrow.”
