Law hopes Smith and Warner's club calls set Australia example

Stuart Law believes disgraced Australia stars Steve Smith and David Warner will have a better idea of "what life is all about" after playing club cricket as he called for their return to international duty as soon they complete year-long bans.

Australia captain Smith and Warner, his deputy, were both given 12-month suspensions from state and international fixtures by Cricket Australia for their roles in a ball-tampering scandal during a Test match in South Africa in March last year.

Australia have since slipped to fifth in the world Test rankings and, in the absence of world-class batsmen Smith and Warner, recently suffered a first home series defeat by India.

But the CA bans did not include club games, with Smith playing for Sutherland against a Randwick-Petersham side featuring Warner in a Sydney grade match in September.

"Australia definitely have got the talent, I think we've just lost track of what's important," said former Australia batsman Law, the new coach of Middlesex.

"When I first started playing grade cricket in Brisbane, as a 15-year-old (I was) sharing a dressing room with (Australia batsmen) Allan Border, Greg Ritchie, Kepler Wessels -- that doesn't happen much anymore, the Test players don't really play club cricket.

"Once they are away from international duties, they are wrapped up in cotton wool and put away.

"But kids coming through learn from guys who've done it before. I think David Warner and Steve Smith playing club cricket this (Australian) summer has not only given them an idea of what life is really about, but it's also helping the young kids they have been playing with now to improve," he added.

"They are still very much looked up to in Australia as cricketers and they are two very fine players," insisted Law, who played one Test and 54 one-day internationals while averaging over 50 in first-class cricket.

- 'Australia could do worse' -
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"Shai Hope would be one I would target, not only because he's a champion young man, but he can play the game and he wants to live and breathe cricket. But he is going to be caught up in the World Cup."