UGLY AUSSIE WARNING BY GREAME SMITH

In Today's Courier Mail.........


MASTER stirrer Graeme Smith has warned England captain Andy Flintoff to prepare to shield his young teammates from ugly Ashes abuse by Australian fans this summer.The South African skipper, whose players copped a torrent of racist taunts in Australia last summer, says England's Ashes campaign could be torn to shreds if it can't cope with a crowd backlash.
England's Sikh spinner Monty Panesar has booked time on the psychologist's couch to brace himself for a hostile reception from Australian crowds and other players are likely to join him.
The outspoken Smith claimed Flintoff might have to consider lobbing some verbal grenades at Australia to focus attention on himself and take heat off other Poms. It was a tactic Smith adopted in Australia last summer when he labelled Shane Warne a wannabe captain and claimed Australia was scared of losing a home series.
"As a leader in Australia, Fred (Flintoff) is going to have to carry a lot of heat," Smith said.
"England is obviously going to be targeted a lot by the (Australian) media and the public, so how they deal with that is going to be crucial to their success.
"They've got to look at their team and decide who is going to handle the pressure best and that's probably the skipper.
"It will allow the youngsters in the team to get on and play their cricket and not to deal with other issues as much."
Smith remains angry at how his side was abused by Australian crowds.
At one stage last summer they discussed walking off the field after repeated racial slurs at several venues.
The ugly scenes led to a crackdown on racism, with strict new measures such as life bans for racist spectators now in place.
Cricket Australia is taking no chances for the Ashes, scheduling extra security briefings and warning ground managers to be on the lookout for any signs of crowd trouble. Smith predicts England's Ashes fate could be determined by how it handles Australian crowds.
"How England deal with the crowds could be the biggest factor in the Ashes series," he said.
"It will be England's main challenge – how they handle playing in Australia.
"The racism stuff was hard for us. Most of us enjoy banter – we had grown up in that environment – but I think the racism and some of the crowd behaviour in Australia was very wrong."
Ashes fever is quickly catching hold even though Australia is in far-flung India preparing to play its first match of the Champions Trophy one-day tournament next week.
Australia plays its first game of the Indian tour, a practice match against a local side, in Mumbai today.