Smith needs to continue improving his body language: Waugh

Steven Smith, the Australian captain, doesn't hide his emotions on the field. The 28-year-old has often been likened to legendary skipper Allan Border, who once had the moniker "Captain Grumpy". Since Border, a succession of Australian captains have been generally stoic and rarely showed their emotions in the field.

Conversely, Smith, despite his youthful appearance, can be a firecracker, most notably during the Test tour of India earlier this year where television cameras captured him labelling Murali Vijay a "f***ing cheat".

Knowing he needs to curb his innate volatility, Smith has publicly acknowledged a desire to keep his emotions in check, as he attempts to mould a new era of Australian cricket.

Steve Waugh, the legendary Australian captain, almost always exuded a poker face during his highly successful reign as skipper from 1999-2004. The 52-year-old believed Smith needed to "continue to improve" his body language.

"It's hard. He's a very emotional cricketer," Waugh said on Wednesday (November 1). "He wears his heart on his sleeve, whereas I could control that a lot easier and pack my emotions away and not show too much. If it doesn't come naturally, it's hard to do."

Waugh said Smith needed to be aware of the continual media attention on him and consequences of poor body language. "One thing I would say, these days if you're at first slip and you're kicking the ground or there's body language that's not positive, the chances are it's going to be replayed somewhere and the bowlers are going to see it," he said. "If you're playing grade cricket you can get away with it, but not when you've got 20 cameras on you."

Waugh, who captained Australia to eight Ashes victories from nine Tests, said he was always aware of the extra scrutiny placed on him as skipper. "Whatever I did was going to be magnified and monitored and exaggerated, so I made a decision to keep all my emotions in check and not give too much away," he said.

"I think he's (Smith) just got to be aware that the camera is always on him. That's something I had in the back of my mind. But it's a bit of a difficult situation, because if it comes naturally, it's very hard to turn it off," Waugh added.