Fast bowler Brett Lee believes Australia's cricketers might stem their bad run with officialdom by forming better relationships with umpires.
In a summer when Lee and two of his teammates have been reported for conduct breaches and their side accused of intimidating umpires through excessive appealing, Australia is dangerously close to letting slip the pre-emptive behavioural measures it put in place in 2003 through the Spirit of Cricket pact.
Lee and fellow paceman Glenn McGrath were fined for dissent and using obscene language, respectively, during the third Test against South Africa in Sydney.
Wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist is still to go before a match referee's hearing to answer to a dissent charge from last Sunday's tri-series match against South Africa in Brisbane, where he asked umpire Aleem Dar why a run-out attempt was not referred to the third umpire.
Despite the indiscretions and claims from match referee Chris Broad and South African coach Mickey Arthur that Australia was the "best" side in the world at excessive and aggressive appealing, Lee believed the world champions still had a good record.
Lee maintained Australians only appealed when they believed an opponent to be out, but he admitted he and his teammates had to be careful and respectful of umpires' decisions.
"There's a line you can't step over and we've got to make sure that we don't do that," he said.
"We've got to get to know the umpires a lot better and realise too that the umpires have only got 0.3 of a second to make up their minds, so it's a very tough job.
"We've got the aids here, cricketers and journalists, and people watching on TV at home that we've got the super slo-mo replays and we can say `That's definitely going to hit leg stump' or `He's definitely nicked that', whereas a bowler or an umpire and maybe a batsman, in the heat of the moment, have only got a split-second to work out what's going on.
"Sometimes you want to know that was possibly not out or why you've been given out and you've just got to learn to deal with it, accept the decision and get on with it."
Lee's admission comes a day after McGrath conceded Australians needed to "pull our heads in" on the field, although McGrath said umpires had to be approachable for bowlers to seek explanations over unsuccessful appeals.
One thing Lee does not want to decline is his batting opportunities.
Fresh from a career-best 57 at the Gabba, Lee had enjoyed the extra responsibility afforded him with the bat in the past year, as he had been sent in as a Test nightwatchman and used as a hitter on the one-day arena.
Lee averages about 20 with the bat in both Tests and one-day internationals, however he warned consistency was the ability he needed to prove if he was going to be classified as an allrounder instead of a tailender who bats well.
"I'd like to be considered as a handy tail-end batsman and whether that develops into a bowling allrounder, then that's great, that's what I'm aiming at," he said ahead of Friday's tri-series clash against the Proteas at Telstra Dome.
"I'm not going to sell myself short and say I don't want to be an allrounder, I do want to be a bowling allrounder definitely.
"But it's going to take a lot of 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and then you've got to throw in a ton there at some stage."