Cultural change needed … Ben Hilfenhaus celebrates after taking the wicket of Zaheer Khan on the third day of the third cricket Test at the WACA Ground.
AUSTRALIA'S pacemen must embrace Pat Howard's rotation policy for fast bowlers if they are to avoid injuries that could shorten their shelf life as international players, a leading coach has said.
But the boss of Australia's players union, Paul Marsh, said the jury was still out on what the best injury management measures were.
The man who was narrowly beaten by Craig McDermott to be Australia's new fast bowling guru, Allister de Winter, said there needed to be a culture change among the country's pace ranks in order for them to accept Howard's controversial initiative.
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''It's an education process for everybody to say 'yes, you can play the next Test but how long do you want your career to be?''' said de Winter, coach of Big Bash semi-finalists the Hobart Hurricanes.
''Do you want to play Test cricket for five more years or do you want to play for three? Ultimately that's what it's going to come to.
''If there are eight or 10 bowlers - and everybody's saying there are and I agree - that are good enough, we shouldn't just limit the Test matches to just four bowlers all the time because you'll break them and just be left with four.
''You carry your top six batters around and they can play every game but the physical demands of bowling suggest that you can't keep backing up like that, Test after Test.''
Rotation has been used for several years in the limited overs arena, after a lukewarm response initially, but not so in Tests.
The issue has dominated the build-up to the fourth Test as Australia's selectors decide which member of their potent pace quartet, which routed India twice inside three days in Perth, makes way for spinner Nathan Lyon on an Adelaide wicket likely to favour bat over ball.
Peter Siddle declared yesterday that he did not want to step aside for the series finale but, having played eight Tests in a row, is a prime candidate for rest despite taking 17 wickets at 19.58 against India.
Siddle, however, will not be out of pocket should John Inverarity's panel decide he needs to cool his heels to avoid an injury list already containing stars such as James Pattinson, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Johnson.
The Australian Cricketers' Association has negotiated a clause in its memorandum of understanding with Cricket Australia in which players who are rested still receive their full match fees.
Ideally, the ACA would prefer a less crowded international schedule so that players had more time to rest between games but welcomed any move by CA designed to improve player welfare.
Marsh, however, was unconvinced Australian cricket was any closer to finding the best way of looking after their fast bowlers.
''We certainly haven't got it right to this point in getting any definitive answers on what resting a player may do for a career - it's still a grey area in Australian cricket,'' he said.
''Leaving a player out, or bowling them or how much they train - what is the right answer there?
''Whether it be a blanket answer for an individual answer for each player, I don't think we've got that right yet … Hopefully this new regime will get some answers there.''
But Marsh said it was a positive if rested quicks were angry at being sidelined when fit as that showed they were hungry to play.
''No one wants to miss a game. The players have cautiously embraced resting and rotation in limited-overs cricket but Test cricket is the pinnacle and no player wants to rest if they're fit and ready for selection,'' he said. ''In Test cricket we have resisted, that may change … The players will deal with it. Is it that big an issue if players are filthy about being left out and it makes them hungrier for the next game?
''I don't think you want a culture where players are happy to miss a game. It's a strength that players are desperate to play a game.
''If the selectors leave them out and they're filthy about that then that augurs well for Australian cricket if you have blokes who are fit and hungry and ready to go.''
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