England head coach Brendon McCullum agreed that the airport incident involving team security and a cameraman was not ideal, but he said that his players had handled the high scrutiny of the Ashes tour well.
Cameron Green, an Australian all-rounder, also expressed sympathy for the tourists, while McCullum stated that the England players had enjoyed the banter during their time in Australia.
On Saturday, December 13, at Brisbane Airport, a member of England’s security crew approached a Seven Network cameraman in an attempt to stop filming. According to Cricket Australia (CA) media restrictions, teams are not available for interviews while in transit, but filming is permitted from a reasonable distance.
England captain Ben Stokes was reportedly upset with an Adelaide-based journalist who violated the guidelines, expressing anger at being taped from close range. Since landing in Australia, the England squad has been subjected to unrelenting scrutiny, frequently being the target of criticism as they fell 2-0 behind in the Ashes series, with their aggressive style of play failing to achieve the expected results.
“I didn’t see [the airport incident], but obviously it wasn’t ideal. But hopefully it’s been dealt with and everyone’s able to move on. Obviously, we know coming to Australia, there’s a lot of eyeballs, there’s a lot of intensity and scrutiny on everything we do. I feel like we’ve managed ourselves pretty well throughout this tour,” said McCullum as quoted by.
“I thought the boys were outstanding. The last week we’ve had, they’re engaging with a lot of the locals and everyone was in good spirits. There was some good banter flying both ways and I think everyone treated it [well] and respected it,” he added.
The former New Zealand captain also defended England’s decision to travel to Noosa, explaining that the trip had been booked well in advance due to the gap between the Perth and Adelaide Tests. McCullum’s comments came as Green admitted he felt sympathy for the tourists, revealing that he too had struggled to adjust to the intense spotlight placed on players.
“It was quite an important period. We could give ourselves a chance to allow some of the lessons we’ve learnt over the last couple of weeks to settle and to recalibrate a little bit. I think now the freshness which we come into this Test match with will hopefully pay off,” said McCullum.
“You never like getting filmed, especially when you want to get away from it. There’s always sympathy for anyone in life that’s getting filmed in public or in a private space. It’s never a nice feeling,” said Green.
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