Australia’s short form captain Aaron Finch says he doesn’t know how details from within the men’s camp continually get leaked to the media, adding that players have experienced “burnout” from being confined to a cricket bubble.
It has been a tumultuous year so far for the Australian men’s team, who began the year by surrendering the Border Gavaskar Trophy at home to India, before being humiliated in consecutive tours to the West Indies and Bangladesh in recent months.
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The team’s recent failures have put the spotlight squarely on coach Justin Langer‘s methods, with repeated leaks from within the camp indicating that his intense demeanour had started to wear thin among his players.
When questioned over how news from Australia’s inner sanctum kept getting leaked to the press, Finch was left searching for answers himself.
“It’s a good question, and I don’t know the answer to that,” he told the Big Sports Breakfast.
“All I’ll say is when you lose, everything is magnified and everything is highlighted.”
The opening batsman admitted the team had struggled to cope with the non-stop cricket environment that comes with being confined to a bubble due to COVID-19 protocols.
“As I mentioned with the players on tour with bubble fatigue and guys not having any escape while you’re on tour, you’re locked into cricket mode almost 24/7 because you can’t get out and go for a coffee down the road or you can’t go out for dinner somewhere else,” he said.
“You’re literally just confined to the hotel 24/7. When you’re just around cricket the whole time, that can consume you so you get a little bit of burnout from that as well. And when you’re losing that just adds multiple layers to it as well.
“As everyone knows in sport, wins and losses are what counts and unfortunately we haven’t been up to the mark in the last eight [to] ten months.”
Finch’s comments come after legendary Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist said repeated leaks could potentially “derail” the team’s Ashes campaign this summer.
Langer was initially given a four-year contract when he took over as coach in the wake of the ball tampering scandal in 2018 and he is no certainty to be given an extension at this stage.