Country struggles to feel sympathy for cricketers after sacking coach we all liked

The Australian Cricket team is suffering record-low approval numbers after a difficult 12 months, which included the sacking of popular head coach Justin Langer.

Executives at Cricket Australia are scrambling to identify a strategy that would boost public sentiment after a recent report confirmed the team's approval ratings have dropped to their lowest levels since the underarm ball fiasco in 1981.

Efforts, however, continue to be hindered by self-serving players who feel unfairly treated despite committing the unforgivable act of blatantly cheating against a team we should have easily beaten.

David Warner this week lashed out at Cricket Australia for wanting to "publicly lynch him" after withdrawing his bid to have his lifetime captaincy ban lifted, directing his anger towards the independent panel conducting the review.

The independent panel, however, were relieved by the review being withdrawn. This was due to none of the panel members wanting to be the one to tell Warner that he had never actually been considered for Captain anyway.

The public spat continues a series of unfortunate incidents where the national team have come into the spotlight for reasons other than cricket, including a public disagreement between Captain Pat Cummins and sponsor Alinta Energy.

"To be honest, we've just set up a meeting with Football Australia to take some lessons from how they've turned around the Socceroos", commented an unnamed CA official. Likely remaining anonymous for the fact that asking Football Australia for PR advice is like asking the tubby bloke at the local pub what his sit-up routine is.

"What they did to win back the public was pretty special. It's almost like putting their heads down, working hard, and winning important games actually made people like them again, which we find perplexing."

CA hopes the upcoming meeting with Football Australia and a planned "round table" discussion with the players will help deliver a vision for improving public sentiment.

The recent suggestion of holding a "lock-in" instead of a roundtable was not positively received by leadership.