England’s hapless Ashes tour was again in the headlines after footage emerged of a member of their security team involved in an altercation with a cameraman from Australia’s Channel 7 network.
The incident took place at Brisbane airport on Saturday afternoon as the team prepared to fly on to Adelaide for Wednesday’s crucial third Test, having just spent four days’ R&R in the coastal resort of Noosa.
In a video posted by Channel 7 on X, Colin Rhooms – one of the ECB’s security detail – can be seen repeatedly telling the cameraman to ‘get out of my face’ as the tourists prepare to check in. Channel 7 describe his actions as ‘lashing out’. A still photo released by CODE Sports also shows Rhooms keeping the cameraman at bay with an outstretched arm as he attempts to film the players.
The ECB declined to comment on what would normally be regarded as a storm in a teacup, but is being used by the Australian media as further evidence of ‘England’s tour from hell’.
It felt like an unnecessary distraction at a time when England – two down with three to play – are already under fire because of their preparation for the most eagerly awaited tour of Australia in years.
Duncan Fletcher, who coached Michael Vaughan’s side to the 2005 Ashes, used to say it was better to be undercooked than overcooked at the start of a long series. But England have spent the last few weeks toying with both extremes, and now find themselves a bad day or two away from surrendering to Australia before the marquee Tests in Melbourne and Sydney have even begun.
One dubious decision has followed another. The white-ball tour of New Zealand was depicted by ECB officials as the official Ashes warm-up, only for a chilly spring on green pitches in Christchurch and Wellington to bear little resemblance to the bounce of Perth and Brisbane at the start of an Australian summer.
Then came a three-day practice match against England Lions at Lilac Hill, Perth, itself a symptom of the modern tendency among cricket boards – and the ECB are as guilty as Cricket Australia – to ensure touring teams are deprived of serious opposition.
When England received flak for declining to send members of their first team to Canberra for a two-day pink-ball game against a Prime Minister’s XI by way of preparation for the day/night Brisbane Test, they responded by scheduling extra practice at the Gabba.
After a second successive eight-wicket defeat, head coach Brendon McCullum further riled frustrated England fans by claiming his side were ‘over-prepared’. The trip to Noosa had long been in the diary, and most observers accepted they needed to switch off. Even so, the sight of Stokes’s men playing football on the beach did little to persuade critics that they had struck the right balance.
With the players’ families now starting to arrive from the UK, there will be further scope for outside noise in the weeks ahead.
In truth, everything England do out here will be judged by the final score, but there is no doubt they are not helped by a schedule which allows no room for manoeuvre. Because every other Test nation play most, if not all, their cricket in the northern winter, England are always on the road in a way the Australians are not.
And that has led to an imbalance that has little chance of being righted. While Australian cricketers with time on their hands have often prepared for a tour of England by playing county cricket – think Marnus Labuschagne at Glamorgan or Steve Smith at Sussex – English players simply don’t have the time to warm up for an away Ashes with a few innings in the Sheffield Shield, Australia’s domestic competition.
Not that they’d be welcome anyway. The Shield consists of only six teams, and is regarded as the breeding ground for Australia’s Test team, not a warm-up act for foreigners. The idea of playing the Poms into form would be laughed out of town.
County cricket, by contrast, has 18 teams, and therefore more spaces to fill, as well as chief executives and coaches who need to answer to their membership by competing for trophies. If Labuschagne or Smith can help out, who cares about England?
The fans here do. And the disquiet will only grow if they lose in Adelaide.
