MELBOURNE, Oct 3: Australia’s chastened cricket team on Monday summoned an American baseball coach to help rid them of the fielding fumbles that blighted their Ashes campaign against England.

The Australians are back in action this week against a World XI in three one-dayers here ahead of a six-day Test match in Sydney and are putting their Ashes lessons to use by recruiting senior American baseball coach Mike Young.

Young, who once managed the Australian national baseball team, has worked with the Australian one-day cricket team for five years.

He conducted fielding drills during the team’s training Monday ahead of the first of three one-dayers against the world combination on Wednesday.

Young said national coach John Buchanan contacted him and asked him to help out for the series against the world team.

Australia once was unchallenged as the world’s best fielding side, but its standards slipped alarmingly during the failed Ashes series, with Buchanan criticised for not concentrating enough on sharpening the team’s ground fielding skills.

Cricket Australia is reviewing the national team operations in the wake of the 2-1 Ashes series loss to England and Young said he wanted to become a full-time fielding coach within the team set-up.

“I’ve made no bones about wanting to work more on a full-time basis with cricket, I gave up my baseball career to do this because I believe in it,” Young said on Monday.

“I want to do it with coaches around the country, too, not just with the Australian team.

“If they speak to me and say ‘are you interested?’ Absolutely, I’m interested.

“For the last three years, I’ve said I want to do this full-time — it’s my goal, my passion and I want to finish my career with it.

“These are the best players in the world and I enjoy working with these athletes. It’s just a matter of working at them on a day-in, day-out basis, he said.—AFP