Australia will be keen to strike the right tone from the outset when they go public at Lord’s at the start of their one-day international tour.
When new captain and coach Tim Paine and Justin Langer address the media on Wednesday, they will be speaking for the first time in the UK since the ball-tampering fiasco which brought about their appointments.
Previous incumbents Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann will be thousands of miles away when Paine and Langer undertake a series of high-profile interviews.
Smith, like his former deputy David Warner and Test opener Cameron Bancroft, is serving a cricket Australia ban after admitting his part in a plot to alter the condition of the ball in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in March.
Bancroft was deployed with sandpaper to do so, and was caught red-handed by television cameras covering the match, while Warner and Smith were complicit.
Captain and vice-captain were stripped of their positions, and punished with 12-month bans – while Bancroft’s suspension will last for nine months.
Lehmann resigned as coach in the aftermath of a sorry saga which rocked world cricket. It left Australia wringing hands in regret and vowing to address underlying cultural problems in the national team.
It is a story which will not go away quickly, and is sure to dominate a three-week mid-summer tour which starts with a day-night warm-up match against Sussex at Hove on Thursday.
Tim Paine has been tasked with leading the Australia ODI squad.
Echoes of the controversy have been a near daily occurrence over the past two months – and even as Australia were making their way over to England, via a visit to the First World War battlefields of western France and Belgium, Smith was speaking again about the personal impact of his own behaviour.
During a school visit in Sydney on Monday, he recalled his experiences after having to fly home from Australia’s tour of South Africa in disgrace.
“To be honest, I probably spent four days in tears,” he said.
“I was really struggling mentally and I was really lucky that I had some close friends and family members that I could speak to at all hours of the day.”
Paine and former Test batsman Langer have both spoken several times already about a new era for their team, and acknowledgement that they will be ‘copping’ inevitable flak from English crowds this summer.
Similar pronouncements of intent and expectations will doubtless be on the agenda on Wednesday lunchtime too.
But in the hallowed surroundings of Lord’s, they will be that much more resonant as Australia begin a short tour which may prove to be as much about PR management as success or otherwise on the pitch.
