Australia cricket stars 'adults' and do not need curfew, says Darren Lehmann

Coach against imposing curfew on players after it was reported England team disciplined during Ashes series

Darren Lehmann has returned to Brisbane Heat for a second stint as the Big Bash League team's coach. Getty Images

Australian coach Darren Lehmann says he cannot envisage ever slapping a curfew on his players, who were "grown men", after England opted to ban their team being out after midnight.

The England decision followed Jonny Bairstow's headbutt on Australia opener Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar late last month, which only came to light over the weekend.

It came with sensitivity within the England camp about off-field behaviour after the controversy surrounding suspended star all-rounder Ben Stokes, who is facing a police inquiry into a fight outside a Bristol nightclub in September

Lehmann said it was not something he would consider.

"We wouldn't have curfews but that's our decision and that [having them] is theirs," he told reporters in Adelaide late Tuesday ahead of the second Test starting Saturday.

"We have faith in the blokes to do the right thing. They're grown men, they're adults."

Former players' take on headbutt incident

Former Australian captain and selector Greg Chappell suggested curfews were ineffective.

"If someone is determined to get out and do silly things they're probably going to do it whether there's a curfew or not," he told Melbourne radio station SEN.

"Curfews are pretty useless really. If you treat people like adults, most of them will behave like adults. Those who don't probably don't last very long."

England cricket chief Andrew Strauss was cited by cricket.com.au on Tuesday as saying there was no drinking culture in his team, but he imposed a midnight curfew on the five-Test Ashes tour regardless.

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Jonny Bairstow will not be punished for the headbutt incident, says Andrew Strauss

As Australia host England, some things have changed but some things remain same

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In laying down the law after the Bairstow incident, he said his players "need to be smarter".

"That's the reality, they are adults, intelligent adults, and at times they are not using that intelligence in the right way," he said. "It is a distraction to the team and none of us want that distraction."

Despite the Stokes controversy and the Bairstow incident, Strauss insisted the team were "good, honest, hardworking cricketers".

"They've done some great things in an England shirt and I will back them on that to the hilt because I know them," he said.