Australia face outback adventure

John Buchanan's desire for innovation will result in the Australian players preparing for the Champions Trophy and the Ashes with a challenging three-day camp in the Queensland bush. According to The Age the exercise is designed by the coach, whose contract expires after the World Cup in April, as a back-to-basics experience and it is expected to be approved by Cricket Australia's Board on Friday.

"Buchanan wants to keep it all a bit close to his chest because he wants it all to be a bit of a surprise for them and a challenge when it happens," the paper quoted an unidentified Cricket Australia director as saying. After the outback camp the Australians are expected to reconvene on Queensland's Sunshine Coast for more pre-Ashes training.

Throughout his seven-year tenure Buchanan has pushed the players to think outside the game and his experiments have included trips to French and Turkish battlefields, writing poetry, introducing the players to The Art of War by Sun Tzu and hiring a baseball coach. The Champions Trophy in October begins a hectic summer for the team, which also has the five-Test series against England, the VB and Chappell-Hadlee series and the World Cup in the West Indies.