'End of era' for Australians - says Pakistan coach

SHARJAH - The Australian cricket team is "at the end of an era" and risks holding on to the Waugh brothers for too long, according to Pakistan coach Richard Pybus.

His team has just been absolutely walloped by Australia in the second cricket Test here but Englishman Pybus believes the long-term problems lie in the Aussie camp - and particularly with the Waugh twins.

Pybus, in a thoughtful commentary on the state of Australian cricket ahead of the Ashes tour, believes the world champion's two-day trouncing of an inexperienced Pakistan only masks deep-seated problems.

"Something that will be very positive for the English is that this Australian team is at an end of an era," Pybus said.

"It will be easy here after this second Test to be comfortable again because they've put us under the cosh but I think in the Australian camp they'll know there are things that are not as they should be."

He warned the Australian selectors to think about blooding new players or risk the team going stale.

"I think it's a dangerous place to be when you hold on and hold on," he said in reference to the Waughs, who have played 277 Tests between them.

"Whether they blood new players for the Ashes or they hold on until after the Ashes series ... if you're not consistently renewing your team, re-energising it, you start to become a little stagnant."

He believed the 37-year-old Waugh twins were out of form because they were suffering from "split focus" as they started to look to life after cricket. And technically, other teams had worked them out and had become expert at shutting down their scoring options.

"It's as much a mental approach as a technique.

"The Waugh brothers score in particular areas - if you shut down those areas it makes life very difficult. When you get limited in certain areas you start to lack trust in your judgement and it becomes a different place out in the middle.

"Combine that with the fact they're coming towards the end of careers ... when a player comes to a certain point in his career when he's starting to have to make decisions about "where to from here" you start to get a split focus.

"You can't have a dual focus - you have to have a single focus and that is scoring runs.

"That's where the question marks are."

Pybus said the media put pressure on the twins but he thought Steve and Mark Waugh "were very conscious" about their futures out of cricket.

"They've been professional cricketers for a very long time.

"Do you become a commentator, do you go out in the big wide world and work in an office - these are big questions, mid-30s crisis questions and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where they are now."

Pybus also speculated that Steve Waugh would be looking over his shoulder at Ricky Ponting, who took the one-day captaincy from him earlier this year.

"They've got a captain in waiting in Ricky Ponting and whatever anyone says there will be a little bit of electricity between the incumbent and the man in waiting.

"Steve Waugh does look like he's under a tremendous amount of pressure."