{"id":268162,"date":"2025-11-07T06:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268162\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:02:12","slug":"england-fast-bowler-mark-wood-plays-down-rivalry-in-uninspiring-press-conference-in-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268162\/","title":{"rendered":"England fast bowler Mark Wood plays down rivalry in uninspiring press conference in Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Wood is perceived as England\u2019s biggest weapon with the ball in the upcoming Ashes but played a straight bat when asked about his side\u2019s reception in Australia during an uninspiring press conference in Perth.<\/p>\n

Wood is known as the visitor\u2019s enforcer and most experienced seamer, starting on November 21, having been the only bowler in the squad to have previously played Test cricket in Australia.<\/p>\n

However, the man meant to intimidate the batters of Australia with his extreme pace has instead hosed down hostilities just two weeks out from the first Test at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s brand of cricket, dubbed \u201cBazball\u201d is untested in Australian conditions but is based on fearless and often reckless cricket, however it has started without too much intent at Lilac Hill.<\/p>\n

Wood would not buy into any of the expected back-and-forth between the two sides despite their parochial fan base known as the Barmy Army getting upset over a series of front pages from The West Australian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of it isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s all part of it. I mean I haven\u2019t taken too much notice of the newspapers and things but the reception we\u2019ve had in general from the Australians has been great,\u201d Wood told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven out and about the hotel and in Perth, everyone\u2019s been very friendly and everyone\u2019s excited for the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big build up, there\u2019s huge amounts of press around it and things which makes it even more exciting. There\u2019s a lot of English coming this time, everyone back home \u2013 I walked down the street and it seems like every man from England is coming across. I think the Barmy Army will be in full voice and right behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MarkCamera IconMark Wood padded up to bat. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

England fans became incensed when Wednesday\u2019s front page labelling the polarising skipper \u201cEngland\u2019s Cocky Captain Complainer\u201d, which made international headlines.<\/p>\n

It led to the Barmy Army Perth Supporters co-founder James Whitehouse revealed they would target Australian star and stand-in skipper Steve Smith as part of the rivalry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the oldest rivalry, it\u2019s the longest running rivalry,\u201d he told The West Australian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always full-on from both sides. We thoroughly expect to get hammered by the Aussie fans but we\u2019ll give it back. It\u2019s always good in nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Steve Smith is captain is going to be a nice one for us because let\u2019s face it, he\u2019s got it coming again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about if tensions would rise though, Wood said: \u201cThere\u2019s always something that heats up but at the minute were fully focused on ourselves and just trying to go about our business quietly and making sure we\u2019re ready for that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

England are coming off a fiery home series against India where there were plenty of tensions between the two sides.<\/p>\n

Asked about any potential plans to target the Australians with similar aggressive sledging, Wood pleaded ignorance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t told me that, so I\u2019m not in on that one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"FastCamera IconFast bowler Mark Wood. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little bit of needle in that game with things that had gone on but going into this I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything being planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s almost forced it\u2019s almost worse isn\u2019t it? It doesn\u2019t come across genuine or anything. And I\u2019m sure that the rivalry is always there \u2026 I\u2019ve got huge respect for Australia and what they\u2019ve achieved. And they\u2019re certainly hard to beat in their own conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

England continued their preparations with a training session on Friday before they have a day off tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Several stars, including batters Joe Root and Harry Brook, are set to arrive on Sunday ahead of a practice game against the English Lions next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Wood is perceived as England\u2019s biggest weapon with the ball in the upcoming Ashes but played a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-268162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}