MELBOURNE, Jan 20: Australia’s cricketers have been warned about improving their behaviour following Darren Lehmann’s five-match ban over his racist outburst and several other incidents involving team mates.

Australia’s one-day captain Ricky Ponting said the players were told to start behaving better after a meeting with Australian Cricket Board chairman James Sutherland on Monday.

“A talking-to today from James won’t hurt us at all,” Ponting told reporters.

“I suppose with Darren the other day...it was just a bit of a wake-up for all of us, you are in the public eye all the time and you’ve got to be very careful what you say and what you do all of the time.

“You can’t let yourself slip up at all and we’ve just had a few slip-ups the last couple of weeks.”

Lehmann was suspended for five matches after being found guilty of breaching the sport’s strict code of conduct. He had been overheard making an offensive remark after being dismissed in a limited-overs match with Sri Lanka last week.

Earlier this month, two other senior Australian players were found guilty of misbehaving in the final Ashes Test with England.

Opening batsman Matthew Hayden was fined for smashing the glass door leading to the players’ changing room and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was reprimanded for swearing.

“It’s something we can address as a team,” Ponting said.

“We’ve said for the last couple of years that we want to be known as good people and not just good players.

“We can improve it. It actually has been a pretty conscious thing from the team.”—Reuters