Australia say sledging is good, but abuse crosses line

Australia coach Justin Langer insisted "sledging's a good thing" as the team prepared to face England in their first series since March's dramatic ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

Langer, however, stressed that "banter" would not be allowed to descend into "abuse", as captain Tim Paine promised Australia "won't be silent" during a five-match one-day international series.

Former Australia captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were banned for a year for their part in the ball-tampering incident during the third Test in Cape Town.

Meanwhile batsman Cameron Bancroft -- who applied sandpaper to the ball in a clear breach of cricket's rulebook -- was given a nine-month ban by Cricket Australia.

The trio were all sent home in disgrace, with wicket-keeper Paine taking over as captain in South Africa.

Darren Lehmann then resigned as coach and was replaced by Langer.

After the ball-tampering scandal, there were concerns that sledging or verbal taunts had contributed to a toxic atmosphere between the Australia and South Africa teams.

But Langer said that, as far as he was concerned, sledging was just another word for banter.

- 'Sledge my daughter' -
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"We'll still be called sledging Australians, it's been happening for the last 30 years. So we'll cope with that."
"We won't be silent. We're going to be speaking, trying to put pressure on teams as we usually do. But we have to be respectful."
"Coming to England now with new faces, a new coach, just getting back into cricket is an opportunity for us to move on and show we've made a few changes."
- 'Toilet paper' -
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"But I've said this for 25 years, we can have the fanciest mission statements, but if you don't live them, they're like toilet paper mate. They are written down, but unless you live them they're meaningless."
He added: "We've just got to create the environment where it's a great changing room. "All culture is behaviour. Make it good on and off the field. If we've got good behaviours, then we've got a good environment."