Steve Waugh today called for the Australian cricket team to visit the Gallipoli battlefields prior to every Ashes tour.

The Australian captain, clearly moved by the team's tour of the battlefields today, suggested that the Ashes squad do the same every four years as a stop-over to London.

"I'd like to think this could be a traditional start to every tour by an Australian side to the UK," he said from the Gallipoli peninsula.

"It's so peaceful and beautiful now the hardest part is to realise what it was like in 1915."

In that year more than 8,000 ANZACS were killed and a further 18,000 wounded during the ill-fated eight month campaign.

Today the Australian cricketers visited memorial sites such as Lone Pine, The Nek, Johnston's Jolly and Chunuk Bair, the highest ground at Gallipoli which was briefly held by New Zealand forces.

Waugh, who described the visit as a once in a lifetime experience, praised the courage and determination of the ANZACS.

"It puts things into perspective for us because people call us heroes but we just play sport and we're good at it," the 36-year-old said.

"But realistically those who fought are far more deserving of the accolade of heroes than any of us.

"As for the other players, everyone is taking it in and is very interested but it's hard to comprehend the scale of what happened here with half a million casualties."

Waugh said he and his teammates were thinking about the young soldiers who went off looking for adventure only to find themselves facing a determined Turkish enemy and punishing conditions.

"For all those who ended up dying, it's hard to comprehend the numbers dying and fighting and all the commotion and confusion. It must have been terrifying," he said.

Waugh explained the idea of seeing the battlefields was formulated about 12 months ago when he had dinner with Australian of the Year Lieutenant-General Peter Cosgrove.

They discussed the common features of the armed forces and cricket - namely that both required careful planning and camaraderie - before putting the idea to the Australian Cricket Board.

ACB executive chairman Malcolm Speed agreed and the Gallipoli visit was made part of the tour itinerary.

During the five-hour bus trip from Istanbul to Gelibolu, the team watched the Four Corners documentary "The Fatal Shore" and the 1981 Peter Weir film "Gallipoli", starring a young Mel Gibson.

The movie records an attack on the narrow ridge called The Nek on August 7, 1915, when more than 300 Australians were gunned down in a futile but courageous attack on an area no bigger than the size of two tennis courts.

Four lines of men were sent to almost certain death before the attack was halted.

Today, the Australians planned a game of cricket on the beach at Anzac Cove, re-enacting a match played by diggers on a famous section of the battlefield called Shell Green during the final days of the campaign.

On December 8, 1915, Britain's General Kitchener ordered the evacuation of the ANZAC forces.

The Turks must have been literally stumped when they watched a group of soldiers from the NSW 4th Battalion stage a cricket match at Shell Green on December 17, 1915.

By this stage of the campaign the Turks and the ANZACS had developed a mutual respect and often exchanged presents.

The Turks held their fire to watch the cricket but after two hours they'd had enough and started shelling the Australians.

According to the diary of one ANZAC, Granville Ryrie, the match continued anyway until the Turks doubled their firepower and the Aussies reluctantly called it a draw.

© 2001 AAP