AUSTRALIA’S selectors look set to place more emphasis on a player’s character following the release of the findings of the Longstaff Review.

The Ethics Committee handed down 42 recommendations as part of its independent cultural review of Cricket Australia — the Longstaff Review — with the sports governing body only rejecting one out of hand and putting seven under consideration.

Among the 34 it accepted was that “selectors be required to take account of a player’s character as well as their skills as a cricketer when making a selection.”

CA stated that a player’s character was already in consideration when making selections, but at the same time “will review its selection policy, with a heightened emphasis on a player’s character and behaviour in line with the Players’ Pact.”

Tim Paine and Josh Hazlewood revealed the Players Pact following the release of the Longstaff Review, after the players conducted their own separate review under the guidance of Rick McCosker.

The Pact reads:

We recognise how lucky we are to play this great game.
We respect the game and its traditions.
We want to make all Australians proud.
Compete with us.
Smile with us.
Fight on with us.
Dream with us.

Paine admitted Australian cricketers were guilty of getting “wrapped up in our self-importance”, having unveiled the simple words that will guide his side’s approach this summer as they attempt win back fans.

Paine, Rachael Haynes, Pat Cummins, Shane Watson, George Bailey and Justin Langer were on the panel that helped McCosker conduct a played-led review. The separate cultural review highlighted CA’s cultural failings but also bemoaned the “gilded bubble” that many “idolised” elite male players operated within.

“Players lack what might be called a ‘worldly perspective’ - and are perceived to be arrogant, entitled and self-centred,” the report notes. “(They are) disconnected, for much of each year, from families, friends and the grounding influence of community.”

Paine, among the 29 per cent of players that bothered to respond to The Ethics Centre, insisted teammates talked about pricking that bubble long before the Cape Town cheating scandal.

“I was having conversations with Steve Smith about that when I first came back into the team (in 2017),” Paine told reporters.

“We just got a little bit wrapped up in our self-importance. “It’s not our cricket team. It’s Australia’s cricket team and I think for a little while we lost that.

“It’s about giving back to our fans. Getting outside our bubble and trying to grow the game a little bit more, think more of others.”

Asked about sledging, a topic covered in depth by the scathing 145-page report, Paine insisted his team was now on the right track and didn’t need to change much.

“It just comes down to knowing what is right and what’s wrong,” he said. “You’re never going to have a game of cricket played where opposition players don’t speak to each other.

“We’re going to hold ourselves accountable.”

Vice-captain Josh Hazlewood, speaking alongside Paine, admitted he felt uncomfortable about how the team had acted at times in the past. “When you actually see it, it can be a bit confronting,” Hazlewood said. The Ethics Centre detailed a “constant complaint from players who contributed to this review is that they are treated as if they are ‘assets’ of the game ... commodities”.

“We are human beings at the end of the day. We should be treated with more respect ... CA doesn’t show respect a lot of the time,” an anonymous player is quoted as saying in the report.

“You get dropped by phone - who else loses their job over the phone?”