The Ashes: England coach Brendon McCullum admits clash with Channel 7 cameraman ‘wasn’t ideal’

England coach Brendon McCullum admits the clash between one of the team’s security detail and a television cameraman “wasn’t ideal” but urged those involved to “move on”.

Answering a watered-down question by a travelling English reporter who described the clash between the England security officer and a Channel 7 cameraman as “fun and games”, McCullum said his team had enjoyed a good relationship with the Australian media since arriving.

But he danced around follow-up questions from Australian journalists pressing on the issue.

A member of the touring party’s security detail shoved Seven camera operator Nick Carrigan after a prolonged exchanged where he had purposefully stood in front of his shots and even tried to block him entering the terminal at Brisbane Airport, where the England side were travelling to Adelaide after a rest week in Noosa.

“I didn’t see it, but obviously it wasn’t ideal. Hopefully it’s been dealt with and everyone is able to move on,” McCullum answered the initial question at a press conference at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

“Obviously we know you come to Australia, there is a lot of eyeballs, there is a lot of intensity and scrutiny on everything you do and we feel like we have managed ourselves pretty well throughout this tour.

“I thought the boys were outstanding the last week we’ve had, they were 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 that with the respect it deserved.”

McCullum then talked around the issue when asked a second time.

“I think I’ve answered that. From our point of view I think we’ve been very respectful right throughout this tour. We know that there’s scrutiny and the eyeballs will be more extreme than we’re used to,” he said.

“Over the last few weeks I think we’ve dealt with it really well, trying to embrace everything that Australia has to offer. My wife’s Australian and I know the Australian people very well. There is hostility early, but once you break that down you end up getting respect.

“Our boys know we haven’t been at our best on the field, (but) we have still got to enjoy ourselves off the field and still treat the country with the respect and enjoyment that we want when we came down here and just tidy up a few things on the field.”

McCullum also doubled down on his widely-panned claims his side “over prepared” before they were thumped by eight wickets in the Brisbane Test.

“It’s not about working the hardest, working the hardest doesn’t guarantee you success. Working the longest doesn’t guarantee you success,” he said.

“What I meant by us being over prepared is, we had five intense training sessions where in my opinion we left ourselves a fraction short in terms of our energy and our ability to play what was in front of us.

“When you enter a game you need to be mentally fresh, you need to be physically fresh and five intense training sessions on the back of a difficult loss necessarily gave us our best chance. And I’ll wear that, I’ll wear that as a leader, I’m happy to wear the message that I said. I know not everyone will agree with it, but at least the focus is on me and not the lads.”

McCullum said he does not feel his job is on the line in the Adelaide Test, which starts on Wednesday, despite his team racing towards an ignominious series defeat.

“No, but it doesn’t really bother me to be honest. Professional sport, it’s not easy, you do the job to the best of your ability, you have conviction in what you’re doing and whatever happens happens,” McCullum said when asked if he feared for his job.

“I certainly don’t coach to protect the job, I coach to get the best out of people and that’s the same with the skipper, we both go about that the same way with the same level of conviction. That won’t be changing this week just because the price is at its highest.

“I firmly believe if we play our best cricket, we are a massive chance in this Test match.”