Cricket story by sport.co.uk, Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:53:39 GMT



Andrew Strauss has vowed to tackle timekeeping issues within the England cricket camp. The announcement comes after it emerged that Andrew Flintoff missed the team bus for a visit to World War I sites in Belgium on Saturday morning, the morning after a team dinner. And the England skipper stressed that Flintoff is not the only offender, but refuses to name the others to avoid any rifts in the dressing room.


Strauss insisted that the incident has been put to rest with disciplinary action against Flintoff but is adamant he will prevent such events from reoccurring.


"We don't really want to go into it too much," he said.


"It was a private weekend. He missed the bus. Punctuality has been an issue recently with a few players and we're trying to make a few steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.


"Freddie said he made a mistake, appropriate action has been taken and we move forward.


"I don't want to go into exactly what mechanisms we have in place but I think he knows he mustn't do it again. There have been a few players letting things slip in that respect and they know it's not acceptable."


Strauss was adamant that Flintoff's previous indiscretions - including an incident at the 2007 World Cup where he drunkenly fell off a pedalo - but insisted they didn't affect what punishment to hand out.


"This is a timekeeping thing," he said. "There have been incidents in the past with Fred but for us to look back on that at this stage wouldn't be appropriate."