Steve Smith offered an apology to his Australian teammates after being charged and fined for showing dissent in a Sheffield Shield encounter for New South Wales ahead of the two-match Test series against Pakistan starting November 21 in Brisbane.
Tim Paine, the captain, reminded each and every member of the squad that they need to maintain high standards of behaviour "regardless of who we're playing for".
Australia has strived to enhance its image in the public eye since the controversial ball-tampering incident last year that brought the whole cricket culture down under in the scanner. And so this, along with James Pattinson receiving one Test ban for "personal abuse" while playing for Victoria, don't at all help the cause.
Read Also: James Pattinson banned for one Test over "personal abuse"
"I came in and apologised to the group yesterday for getting a code of conduct," Smith was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "I don't think there was a great deal in it but I've copped it and I have to look at when I get out and the way I sort of conduct myself."
"I know lots of kids watch me play and watch all of us play and the way we conduct ourselves when we get out as well as when we're batting."
"So we have to be very mindful of that and sometimes just bite the bullet and just conduct ourselves in, I guess, a better manner at times," he added.
"Sometimes your emotions can get the better of you out on the field. We're playing a game [where] everyone is trying to do their best and sometimes that happens."
It was quite obvious, the frustration of being given out caught when he felt he wasn't got the better of centurion Smith against Western Australia.
"When you get behind closed doors, go for your life, do what you need to do to let your frustrations out," he said. "Within reason - you probably don't want to punch anything. Mitch Marsh can probably attest to that."
"We're Australian players regardless of where we're playing and what we're doing. We sign up to values and in our contracts we've got a code of conduct there we have to play by. I got pinged and so be it. I felt I should apologise for that," Smith added.
Besides the well-publicised matters of Smith and Pattinson, there have been eight other code of conduct breaches recorded across state, second XI and under-age tournaments this season in Australia.
"I think it's more just a reminder that we've got to set those standards all the time," a very disappointed Paine said on his part. "Whether we're playing for Australia or we're playing club cricket or we're playing for our states or we're not playing cricket, there are standards we set ourselves to live by day in and day out so it's important we do that whether we're on the field off the field, regardless of who we're playing for."
"We've had a couple of instances this week but we always revisit them. We did again last night, just to brush up on what's expected and what we expect of the group. Both of those guys apologised, they know that they fell a little bit short of what we set ourselves in the Test team."
"And the fact that it's important that we maintain that when we go back to state cricket and lead the way there. They're disappointed with that but we are going to keep on top of it and maintain the level that we've set so far in the last couple of years," the captain concluded.
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)
