SYDNEY, Jan 17: Feisty Australian pace bowler Glenn McGrath believes the time has come for his colleagues to start behaving themselves following a spate of citings for bad behaviour on-field.

“I think at the end of the day it is up to the captain (to talk to umpires) and it should be left that way, and we just need to pull our heads in a little bit,” McGrath said on Tuesday.

The admission comes hard on the heels of a dissent charge against wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, the third member of the national side to be charged for an offence in a fortnight.

McGrath himself and pace bowler Brett Lee were the other two, the former charged with using obscene language and the latter dissent during Australia’s third Test against South Africa in Sydney at the start of the year.

Gilchrist fell foul of officialdom after complaining when a run-out decision during Friday’s one-day tri-series match against South Africa at the Gabba was not referred to the third umpire.

Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar had ruled that Proteas’ opener Boeta Dippenaar was not out but television replays showed him in mid-air when a throw from Andrew Symonds broke the stumps.

Players aren’t allowed to request that decisions be referred to the third umpire where an official can use the replays to help make a decision.

Australian bowlers have been increasingly keen to ask umpires the reasons for their appeals being turned down this summer.

But McGrath said although the team needed to curb their emotions on the field, umpires had to be approachable.

“If the umpire said in my opinion that wasn’t out, then you get on with it. I think at the end of the day the umpire still needs to be approachable and you still have got to be able to talk to him,” he said.

McGrath has a history of on-field clashes, including one memorable incident when he verbally abused West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan from close range in the Caribbean in 2003.

The Australian players formulated a Spirit of Cricket code that was instigated later that year in an attempt to improve the national side’s behaviour.

McGrath felt the Australian team had been well behaved before the recent run of incidents.—AFP