The Wags would have saved the day

Cricket World Cup: The Wags would have saved the day | Cricket World Cup 2007 | Guardian Unlimited Sport: "Curfews are rare in cricket. So are tee-totallers. Therefore the best method of managing a side's social habits is to issue it with its own authority and responsibility for its actions. That has always been the England coach Duncan Fletcher's attitude and it has to be the correct one in a sport involving such lengthy times together and, more pertinently, away from home.

He treats his players like adults and lets them decide for themselves what is acceptable and what is not. Modern fitness demands usually dictate anyway but anything impacting upon on-field performance clearly falls into the latter category and, in overstepping the mark, such miscreants have to suffer the consequences. So Andrew Flintoff and his fellow carousers, with a match so soon after their drinking, had to be punished, Flintoff's "previous" earning him a more stringent punishment."