Buchanan defends heavy training workload

John Buchanan has rejected Shane Warne's claims that the Australia team was "trained into the ground", leading to them losing the CB Series to England. Warne said Buchanan must take responsibility for the loss as the draining practice regime appeared to leave the side flat near the end of the tournament.

Buchanan said such comments were ill-informed and incorrect. "I think that's nonsense," Buchanan told the Sunday Telegraph. "The notion of overtraining, I'd like to know what the definition of that is. I haven't seen Shane's comments but all I can say is I prefer people to make comments if they are in and around the team.

"This is a one-day side and Shane hasn't been around that for a while. There's been plenty of comment from people on the outside and I would say if it's constructive help that would be great, but at the moment I find it pretty unhelpful."

Buchanan said it was unfair to judge what had been a very successful team on their performance over a short time-frame. "This is a one-week period [of poor form] in a team that currently wins 75 per cent of its games," he said.

"That's a hasty assessment. Some people link that to injuries and workloads. I find that commentary unhelpful. Injuries occur in sport, simple as that. Yes, we trained harder for a period of time but the players and medical staff agreed to it. I'm hoping we'll see the benefits through the World Cup."