NOTTINGHAM, England - Australian coach John Buchanan has denied a document proclaiming "psychological control" over England was intentionally leaked to the media ahead of the third Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.

However, Buchanan admitted to caring little that in-house correspondence was now in the public domain, including most back pages of English newspapers.

His memo, which relates theories from fifth-century BC Chinese warrior Sun Tzu's book "The Art of War" to Australia's Ashes campaign, was slipped under the door of journalists as well as his players by a receptionist at the team's Southampton hotel on the weekend.

Conspiracy theorists claim Buchanan may have wanted the thoughts of the Australian camp to become public, but he denied this was the case.

"I don't think I'm a devious sort of person," Buchanan said.

"It's a fairly common practice, I put material under the door of players.

"It seems I've put the material under the door of a lot of media at the same stage.

"I don't see it as a mistake, it's just unfortunate that somehow it escaped our normal channels."

Buchanan gives his players motivational material as often as once a week and often delivers it himself but occasionally he asks hotel staff to deliver the papers to the appropriate rooms.

The heart of the receptionist responsible for the gaffe in Southampton must have missed a beat this morning when the story dominated newspaper, television and radio reports.

"It's always in the back of my mind that it might sneak out, not that I want it to happen," Buchanan added.

"There are ways and means of getting around it I suppose but maybe I'm not worried about that, either."

The beliefs of Tzu were accompanied by hand-written notes from Buchanan. Alongside Tzu's direction to "forestall an opponent by seizing what he holds dear," Buchanan scrawled: "Overall, this English team is hanging onto excuses (eg injuries, toss, bad luck, dropped catches, etc). By gradually taking each of these away, ultimately there is no place to hide."

He stood his ground on that claim.

"In the end we're in a more comfortable position and therefore it is difficult when you're not winning games and you are trying to assess why that's not the case," he said.

"Ultimately you've got to be responsible and accountable for what goes on out on the field."

Buchanan said he would be satisfied if only a handful of his 17-man squad actually read the memo.

"I don't for one minute think that it's going to be the bible for 17 players, that's for sure," he said.

"All it's intended to do is focus our attention not only on this game but the rest of the series, and also beyond the series trying to extend people a little bit and get them to think a bit differently, look at things differently."

Australia, expected to announce an unchanged XI from the side that won at Lord's by eight wickets, and England trained at Trent Bridge today.

© 2001 AAP