Australia's cricketers have responded angrily to suggestions that the presence of their partners and children on tour contributed to the team's loss of the Ashes.
Members of the team have been incensed by stories written back home that depict their families as unnecessary distractions during the contest against England, and rejected outright the contention that they somehow brought on the team's poor batting displays in the Edgbaston and Trent Bridge Tests that effectively surrendered the Ashes to Alastair Cook's team.
The retiring captain Michael Clarke described allegations published in News Limited Group newspapers as "a load of shit" in a radio interview, while Mitchell Johnson singled out the Daily Telegraph columnist Rebecca Wilson in a series of tweets after reading a piece that claimed, among other things, that partners "all travel with them the entire time they are away".
Members of the team have been incensed by stories written back home that depict their families as unnecessary distractions during the contest against England, and rejected outright the contention that they somehow brought on the team's poor batting displays in the Edgbaston and Trent Bridge Tests that effectively surrendered the Ashes to Alastair Cook's team.
The retiring captain Michael Clarke described allegations published in News Limited Group newspapers as "a load of shit" in a radio interview, while Mitchell Johnson singled out the Daily Telegraph columnist Rebecca Wilson in a series of tweets after reading a piece that claimed, among other things, that partners "all travel with them the entire time they are away".
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