Smith and Warner start to heal wounds

Further details of the operation to resurrect Australian cricket culture have begun to emerge.

Steve Smith, left, with Australian teammates Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.

As Steve Smith and David Warner prepare to reunite with the Australian team in Dubai after a year in exile further details of the operation to resurrect Australian cricket culture have begun to emerge.

The duo, along with Cameron Bancroft, were banned in the fallout from the cheating scandal in South Africa last March.

Smith and Warner’s punishment ends March 29, Bancroft’s finished on December 29.

Smith, the former captain, is banned from leadership roles for another 12 months while Warner is banned permanently.

The Australian revealed this week that the pair were flying to Dubai for a meeting with the ODI squad and that Cricket Australia had hired independent leadership consultant Tim Ford to act as a facilitator.

The pair met with bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in Sydney before leaving.

CA has been at pains to claim the process is not directly related to bad blood among teammates in the wake of the sandpaper scandal and is meant to focus on cultural changes and expectations developed since Justin Langer took over from Darren Lehmann as coach.

There is, however, no hiding from the tensions created by the incident. Langer admitted cricket was a “dysfunctional family” in November and said he had started the process of healing the rift by meeting with Bancroft, Smith and Warner separately.

The trio had to contribute 100 hours of prescribed social work within cricket as part of their punishment and the administration says all have delivered above and beyond expectation.

The financial cost to Smith and Warner has been estimated to be in excess of $5 million. They both had to give up $2m contracts with their IPL franchises and both would have earned almost the same again playing for Australia in the past 12 months.

The two lost a lot in personal sponsorships as well.

While they will be available to play the last two games of the ODI series against Pakistan in the UAE it was decided they should play for their IPL franchises instead, although their time with those teams will be cut short as they are expected to join a World Cup camp in Brisbane before the tournament ends.

Bancroft, who is not considered a candidate for the international team, showed the nine-month break from first-class cricket had done his game little harm when he peeled off 138no and 86 on return in a Shield match against NSW.

Warner scored a century for his club side last weekend and was one of the leading run-scorers in Sydney club cricket before Christmas.

Smith has also impressed, but he and his former vice-captain have both had their summer interrupted by elbow operations.

Ricky Ponting, who is an assistant coach for the World Cup, told CA’s website he thought the players would reintegrate without a problem but warned English crowds would be a problem.

“I’m sure this would have been talked about at a higher level for a long time — how do we integrate them back in?

“But the hardest part for those guys is going to be the public perception of us, especially in England. They’re coming back into a World Cup in the UK — they shouldn’t be expecting too many pats on the back there.

“They’ve got to know that, they’ve got to accept that and understand that. The team needs to as well, because that could also be something that could be unsettling for a team.”