Australian players arrive in London for World Cup

Australia has arrived in London for its World Cup defence, with the team escorted through a special exit at Heathrow Airport. But the London media is already turning up the blowtorch.

Australia has arrived in England for its World Cup defence with the team escorted through a special exit at Heathrow Airport in London.

They were whisked out a private back door at the busy airport in a security measure made mandatory by the ICC for all countries competing in the upcoming World Cup.

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The secret exit is usually reserved for VIPs visiting London and it helped ensure the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner were spared prying eyes at the public luggage carousels.

The Australians caught a private bus through immigration and were given tea to drink as their passports were stamped.

But they won’t avoid the blowtorch for long.

The Sun’s chief sports writer Dave Kidd wrote yesterday that the World Cup would be followed by “a home Ashes against a band of cheating Aussies preparing for the sledging of their lives”.

That line was worked into a column about England’s ODI win against Pakistan.

Australian players arrive at their London hotel.

Australia is one of the first teams to arrive in England for the World Cup.

Pakistan was already on the ground for its current five-match ODI series against England while the West Indies are nearby, playing ODIs in Ireland.

Australian coach Justin Langer has repeatedly told his players that the World Cup is cricket’s version of the Olympic Games and his team was afforded golden treatment when it arrived from Turkey.

News Corp was there when the Aussies arrived at their team hotel at 10pm on Wednesday night, local time.

There is high-level security in place as Cricket Australia embarks on a five-month tour of the United Kingdom for the upcoming World Cup and Ashes series.

Langer’s team flew into London from Istanbul in Turkey after spending four sobering nights in Gallipoli.

The Gallipoli experience mirrored the one former captain Steve Waugh took his players on before their successful Ashes tour in 2001.

Langer described missing that camp as “one of the regrets of my career”.

Most of Langer’s 15-man World Cup squad posted powerful images on Instagram from the camp that visited the battlefields at the World War I site.

That included a post by Warner about the value of teamwork as he and Smith continue to feel their way back into the Australian dressing room.

All-rounder Glenn Maxwell said the pair was “a little bit more reserved” at last week’s training camp in Brisbane, which marked their return to national duty.

But while the locals in Brisbane delivered a warm welcome when Smith and Warner batted in three practice games in Brisbane, the English tabloids have already started poking Australia.

Originally published as Australian players arrive in London for World Cup