Former Australian cricket team coach John Buchanan has urged the squad members to stick together to build camaraderie, instead of heading home during break, if they want to win the Cricket World Cup at home this year.
Australia has only two optional periods scheduled for players and staff to make the most of long gaps between games and return to home ports during the 43-day tournament.
However, Buchanan has urged the playing group to go one step further and treat the entire campaign like an overseas tour in the interests of building team camaraderie, News.com.au reported.
Australia lost when they last hosted the World Cup in 1992 and only one team in the competition's history, India in 2011, has ever lifted the trophy on home soil.
Two-time World Cup-winning coach Buchanan said that finding the right balance between keeping players fresh and keeping them together and focused on the job at hand is paramount to Australia's success.
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Buchanan said that his approach was that they wanted players to get away, adding that they didn't want to necessarily live in each other's pockets for the whole tournament, so he insisted that it was important to get away from each other.
The ex-coach said that some would go fishing, some might just laze around the pool, but added that in terms of camaraderie, that could be affected in Australia if players choose to head back to home ports, because he claimed that all that does is add a heck of a lot of travel.
Buchanan said that he believes that if one heads back to family, one also heads back to friends and everyone wants to know about the World Cup.
So, Buchanan added that it would be an interesting scenario and decision he supposes for the team to make.
