Past and present Australian cricketers have laughed off revelations England's 2005 Ashes victory had more to do with Marcus Trescothick's sucking Murray Mints than the bowlers' ability to swing the ball naturally.

Former leading swing bowler Damien Fleming and acting captain Michael Clarke were both bemused yesterday by Trescothick's admission in his recently released autobiography Coming Back To Me that he sucked the breath fresheners to help him keep shine on the ball during the Ashes series.

The former England opener, who staged an emotional retirement from cricket this year after being diagnosed with severe depression, said it was his responsibility to keep the shine on the ball during the Ashes series using his minty spit that worked like ''Mr Sheen''.

Fleming, who commentated for BBC during the 2005 series in England, believed the Australian team was conscious of the situation at the time but declined to take it further.

''They didn't want to look like sore losers but some of the guys definitely knew about it,'' Fleming told The Canberra Times.

''The ball, during overs 20-50, doesn't traditionally reverse swing that much and it was during those overs England was getting the advantage and running with it.

''That said, I think their bowlers probably bowled better in general than ours did anyway. They swung the new ball traditionally too and got wickets at regular intervals early.''

Fleming hoped Trescothick's admission would lead to an International Cricket Council investigation, for the better of Test cricket.

''If they think it's becoming rampant in world cricket, they need to have a look at it one way or another,'' he said.

Clarke was less interested in discussing the revelation.

''Marcus has written a book, hasn't he?,'' Clarke said. ''Well ... good luck, like I say, that's in the past.

''Right now we're looking forward to playing the Deshis [Bangladesh] up in Darwin. We'll get our chance in the next 15 months to play against the Poms back in England.''

Clarke will captain Australia for the first time on Saturday in a series against Bangladesh.

Asked if Trescothick's admission explained why England's bowlers were able to get reverse swing in 2005 while the Aussies couldn't, Clarke said it wasn't a concern.

''It actually doesn't bother me at all right now,'' he said from Brisbane, where he was with the Australian squad before three one-day games in the tropics. with AAP