Former Australia coach Darren Lehmann has defended the Australia cricket team by claiming that they are not as bad as the media seem to portray them as. After the ball-tampering incident in South Africa, which led to David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft being banned, the Australian cricket team have been ravaged with disrepute.

Darren Lehmann, who resigned as the coach of Australia after the aforementioned trio were handed their bans, meanwhile, hinted that the media exaggerated some events of some matches while also adding that he wouldn’t change anything regarding the spirit with which the Aussies played under his tutelage.  

‘No [I wouldn’t change the spirit].

‘There was a lot of talk about the Australian team being over-aggressive and there were some incidents in some games that they probably pushed it too far,’ Lehmann said.

He then went on to add that Australians have almost always gone with the motto of playing hard but fair while consolidating his stand of media’s exaggerated depictions of the Australian players.

‘They got dealt with accordingly from the ICC and match referee when they crossed that line but the Australians play that way, in essence, a lot of the time. You want to promote the game fairly and play hard but fair on the field.

‘They’re not as bad as portrayed in the media.’

There were suggestions that the Australian cricket team should look towards their neighbours New Zealand and aspire to show the same gamesmen spirit as they do. Lehmann also thinks that playing like them would win back the respect of the fans but winning is also very important.