“Running for the hills”: Whateley slams England’s ‘hiding’ media approach

SEN Cricket’s Gerard Whateley has called out England for refusing to front up to the media after poor performances during Ashes Tests.

After all three days in Adelaide, the English have put up an assistant coach to speak to the press instead of players or head coach Brendon McCullum.

On Day 1, it was bowling coach David Saker. On Day 2, it was batting coach Marcus Trescothick. On Day 3, it was spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel.

Whateley described the tactic as ‘running for the hills’ as rumours of disharmony in the dressing room fester amid poor on-field days.

“It’s three days in a row they’ve sent their assistant coaches, and that’s running for the hills to be frank,” Whateley said on *SEN Cricket.

“They clearly don’t want their players answering questions around team harmony, dressing room dynamics and what’s happening in the game.

“That’s as blatant a campaign as hiding as I can recall...They clearly don’t want to answer the questions at the moment.”

Patel even admitted he’s used to fronting up to the press when the team isn’t doing so well.

“I tend to do a lot of these ones…” Patel admitted after Day 3, before speaking on Will Jacks’ bowling and the non-selection of Shoaib Bashir.

"I don't think he (Jacks) has bowled poorly, if anything, he's been a touch short or a touch straight at times. His pace has been a little bit down compared to (Nathan) Lyon, but I'm not comparing him to Lyon, I'm comparing him to Will Jacks," Patel continued.

"They've played him very well, they've used the crease, they've got deep and gone down at him, they've used the offside and legside and looked to score and looked to put him under pressure, which is probably what you would do against a spinner of Jacksy's nature, where it's not his frontline skill. He's probably 50-50.

"But we all know why he was picked, and it was because of the first two games, and we felt we did need that extra batting cover."

Jacks begins Day 4 with figures of 1/107 from 19 overs as England sit 356 in arrears.

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