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(adds details, Hussain quotes) By Mark Meadows GROS ISLET, St Lucia, March 18 - England
vice-captain Andrew Flintoff was dropped for the World Cup Group
C match with Canada on Sunday because of a breach of team
discipline. Several England players were fined on Saturday for a late
night drinking session following Friday's defeat by New Zealand. "Andrew Flintoff has been left out of the team for a breach
of team discipline. A further statement will be issued in due
course," an England statement read. At the toss, England captain Michael Vaughan refused to say
much more. "We'll talk about it later with the management group. He is
not here today. He is back at the team hotel," he said. British newspapers reported that he had been dragged out of
the sea after falling off a pedalo in the early hours of
Saturday morning. Witnesses, who spoke to Reuters, said several players
including James Anderson, Ian Bell, Jon Lewis and Liam Plunkett
were seen at the Rumours nightclub until the early hours of
Saturday morning.
Flintoff is known as a big drinker but has shed weight and
cut his drinking significantly in recent years as he became one
of the game's top-class all-rounders and spearheaded England's
2-1 Ashes victory in 2005. FIRST WARNING However, he was famously hungover on the team's open-top bus
as England celebrated their win through the streets of London. Former England captain Nasser Hussain slammed the
29-year-old for behaving so irresponsibly. "There is a history to this story. It is not the first time.
In Australia he had three or four warnings about his drinking,"
he told Sky Sports. "Is that the best preparation to go out drinking till 3 am
in this heat? I say well done England finally for having strong
management," Hussain said on Sky Sports while commentating at
the ground. "This is a pretty young side and a lot of the team look up to
someone like Flintoff. If you keep as a management saying its
okay for Freddie (to keep drinking) because he can handle it
then all the others think 'well if Freddie's doing it, I can'. "He's dragged out six or seven (other players). That's why
the others haven't been done (dropped), they've been fined
because its their first warning. "This will now send a message to the others that this is not
how you prepare as an England cricketer. This is not the way we
do things. "With 24 hours to go before the next World Cup game in this
heat...look at footballers they don't drink 48 hours before a
game. The same sort of tone applies to cricket, if not more
because they're playing on a consistent basis, three games in
five days." All-rounder Ravi Bopara replaced Flintoff in England's
line-up, which was otherwise unchanged from the New Zealand
match.
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