The local press played a part in the success of Michael Vaughan's men in the 2005 series, steadily chipping away at the edges of the Australian side.

Four years ago the Australians found it confronting enough to be challenged by the English team let alone have a steady drip feed of dramas find their way into the tabloids.

Such was the effect that then vice-captain Adam Gilchrist admitted in his book True Colours to becoming a bit paranoid.

He even started wondering if he could discipline his three-year-old son Harry without it finding its way into the newspapers.

"He'd get stir crazy in the room and muck up and scream, and I'd be disciplining him with a few stern words, and then I'd think there are people in the next room hearing all this," he wrote.

"Even with (wife) Mel and the kids I felt like I was in a fishbowl, and if I raised my voice at Harry it would be on the front page of the tabloids the next day.

"I'd been ground down into a state of almost constant paranoia."

Gilchrist is a more sensitive soul than many cricketers but other members of the touring party agree the media had an unsettling impact.

Opener Simon Katich, who is going into his third Ashes tour, acknowledged the role the press played in the 2005 series.

"I think the thing that struck home particularly in the (2005) tour, there was stuff that was just blatantly untrue," Katich told AAP.

"That probably affected a few of the boys, in the fact that you see it and have to defend it, that was hard to cop."

Vice-captain Michael Clarke said that side of things was just something that players had to handle.

"There will be the expectation of media and pressure off the field over in England," he said.

"I think it is a major contributor on an Ashes tour, there are so many newspapers and magazines and they are all looking for a story.

"I think it is something you need to be in control of. So you just have to be true to yourself and be who you are."