Young to be Australia fielding consultant

Australia have re-hired Mike Young as a fielding consultant ahead of the World Cup, allowing him to resume work with the team following a sequence of indifferent catching and ground fielding displays against India.

Cricket Australia have claimed that Young is returning because the incumbent Greg Blewett is expecting the birth of his child in Adelaide and will be unavailable for part of the triangular series against India

Young will remain with the squad whenever Blewett returns and stay as part of the team's support staff for the course of the World Cup, adding his enthusiasm and rich experience as a ground fielding mentor and source of encouragement to the players.

Young has not worked with the team since last year's tour of South Africa, and in that time standards have slipped from the high levels maintained during that series and the 5-0 Ashes sweep that preceded it. Counts of chances missed against India number in the region of 17 over the four Tests and have cost around 500 runs.

In his recent ESPNcricinfo column, Ricky Ponting explained Young's value: "One thing that will be missed about Youngy is that the players loved working with him on a one-to-one basis. He never had to chase anyone because they looked forward to it so much.

"In addition to a good, hard fielding session, there would also be enthusiasm, encouragement - and brash American lingo. Youngy would be willing to stand there all day and work with someone until both were happy, even if it was extra work on top of the usual group drills. For that one half-chance in five days, it was worth it."

The coach Darren Lehmann has said that the team's dip in fielding standards appeared related to confidence as much as anything else, something Young commonly brought to the players with his constant words of reassurance.

"Shoddy at best," Lehmann responded when asked for his assessment of the team's fielding in Melbourne. "We've done a lot of work and I can't complain about the work ethic from the lads, but the big ones that cost us were the first innings. We dropped Kohli and Rahane and they made 169 and 147. That cost us dearly in the back end of the game. Catches win matches.

"It's not volume or practice, they're very good at that. It's probably more confidence to be honest, I've been really pleased with the work ethic. We made a conscious effort in the UAE and then after that series that we had to work harder on it and they've been excellent with it. They're catching brilliantly in practice so it's probably more confidence."

Australia's acting Test captain Steven Smith said the team was a long way from the requisite fielding standards to win a World Cup.

"Throughout the [Border-Gavaskar] series we probably let ourselves down a little bit in the field," he said. "Perhaps if we'd taken a few more chances, it might be a little bit different. And they're not the standards we set as an Australian cricket team. We've got a lot of work to do on our fielding with the World Cup coming up, to get our standards up to where we want them to be."