Langer says war of words is 'tame'

Justin Langer called the war of words build-up to Friday's first Test "tame" and Allan Donald, the former South Africa fast bowler, hoped Graeme Smith knew what he was doing. As the ICC stepped in to calm down the pre-series verbals Donald said he was worried for the South African team after Smith's comments that Australia had lost its aura after the Ashes and they would be disappointed if there was no sledging.

"[Smith] can handle himself fine, but my concern is for the rest of the team," Donald told The Courier-Mail. "If his aim was to provoke the Aussies then he's done that. I can understand what Graeme was trying to do ... I just hope everyone else is behind him."

Langer told the paper he was surprised by the ICC's request to follow the spirit of the game in the lead-up to and during matches. "Having just come from the Anthony Mundine and Danny Green [boxing] fights on Sunday night, it's pretty tame compared to that," Langer said. "It is part of the theatre of the build-up. The same things happen before the start of every series."

Michael Hussey said in The Courier-Mail there was history between the teams but the Australians wanted to stick to the "spirit of cricket" code they drew up and adopted. "They are two passionate teams who have a red-hot go, and in the heat of the moment I guess some things do happen," he said.

Cricket Australia is not worried by the ICC request and a spokesman praised the team for their behaviour in the past two years. "The banter that goes with the game, that's fine, that will always be part of the game," the spokesman Peter Young told the Sydney Morning Herald. "During the Ashes a lot of words were exchanged but the series was played in a competitive and sportsmanlike spirit.

"Clearly there is no love lost between Australia and South Africa but there is no love lost between most sides and that's fine as long as they get the balance right. The exhortation to our players is to play the game hard but fair, and by and large we think they're getting that right."