Cricket Australia (CA) media directives state that teams are not available for interview while in transit, but can be filmed “from a respectful distance”.
The tourists have been heavily scrutinised since touching down in Australia, at times becoming the butt of jokes while going 2-0 down in the series and with their aggressive style of play not working.
“I didn’t see [the airport incident], but obviously it wasn’t ideal,” McCullum said on Sunday. “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. 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.”
McCullum also defended England’s decision to go to Noosa, with the trip having been booked well in advance given the gap between the Perth and Adelaide Tests.
“It was quite an important period,” the beleaguered coach said. “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.”
McCullum’s comments came as Green admitted he felt sorry for the tourists, admitting he too battled to grow accustomed to the spotlight put on players.
“You never like getting filmed, especially when you want to get away from it,” Green said. “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.”
