Players remember fallen heroes

Ricky Ponting laid a wreath in northern France for 11,000 Australian soldiers without marked graves as the one-day squad paid their respects to fallen heroes yesterday. The players, including many who visited Gallipoli in 2001, watched Ponting and Penelope Wensley, the Australian ambassador to France, place flowers at the Australia National Memorial near the town of Villers-Bretonneux.

John Buchanan said the visit would help forge a closer team spirit as they witnessed what a sacrifice their compatriots had made. "It's more a life experience rather than a cricket experience, almost irrelevant to the tour to some degree," he said. "We've got an opportunity to really expand everyone's horizons a little bit in terms off other Australians' experiences in a war theatre."

Ponting's squad also took a guided tour of the Franco-Australian Museum, which celebrates in part the special link between the two nations. Australia's soldiers are highly regarded in Villers-Bretonneux because they recaptured the small northern town from Germany on April 25, 1918 in a battle significant to gaining Allied control of the Western Front. The players spent time at the Victoria College and ate lunch at Le Kangaroo Restaurant as the town continues to remember the soldiers.