Follow UsEngland fast bowler Mark Wood admitted that English players, in the last couple of years, have sometimes said ‘dumb’ things in press conferences and insisted that it’s important for dressing room talks to stay in the dressing room.
England under Brendon McCullum have achieved remarkable results in Test cricket but the ‘Bazball’ crew have often been accused of being arrogant by opposition sides due to blunt press statements given by certain individuals.
Harry Brook and Ben Duckett have never shied away from speaking what they think, which is why Duckett, in particular, has come under fire on more than one occasion. Not too long ago, both Duckett and Ben Stokes got called out by Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel for the comments they made in press conferences.
“Sometimes we’ve been so... naive, a bit dumb, in the things we say in the press. We’ll say things in the dressing room, and that is in the dressing room. It should stay there,” Wood said on the Sky Sports Podcast.
“Then we come out in the press and we’ll say an off-the-cuff one-liner that maybe a group of lads have been talking about, it’s in the press, then it looks like we’re ‘Billy Big Boots’, above our station.
“I don’t particularly like that. We’ve got to be respectful. [But] I’m not kicking off at the other players.”
Recently, ECB Director Rob Key also admitted openly that the English players tend to ‘talk a lot of rubbish’ in interviews.
“There's no doubt that we've got to get better when we're doing interviews, when players are doing their post-match press conferences, we speak a lot of rubbish a lot of the time,” Key had said.
"They're trying so hard to not sort of upset players in the dressing room, not try and give away something that they don't think they should, and then they end up creating headlines through that.”
There’s also the stereotype that England, under McCullum, do not train hard enough and are more focused on ‘having a good time playing golf’ rather than training. Former captain Kevin Pietersen was among those who openly criticised the England team during the India tour earlier this year for not allocating enough training days.
However, Wood denied the accusation that England under Baz don’t take things seriously, and also rubbished the importance Golf carries in the side.
“I don’t play golf. I don’t like it. It’s not a game for me. I know the lads enjoy it and that’s their time off. At times, it’s as if the golf is more important, and that is not true at all. We train hard,” Wood said.
Wood is recovering from knee surgery. He will miss the upcoming five-Test series against India but hopes to recover in time for the away Ashes at the end of the year.