Ian Bell: England are sticking together

Thankfully, many will surely be thinking, Pakistan's tour has moved into its final day.

There is much to play for at the Rose Bowl, of course, with the one-day international series locked at 2-2 after much very good 50-over cricket - a fact sadly overshadowed by the corruption controversy and its apparently never-ending repercussions.

Ian Bell is fortunate to have been absent for most of the sad saga, recovering from a broken toe.

But he may well be a central figure today as England go in search of a perfect six-out-of-six series victories this summer - and he has been impressed by the unshakeable nature of the team's morale.

Captain Andrew Strauss spoke of England's "outrage" on Sunday, after Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt had sought to deflect world attention away from allegations of spot-fixing against his countrymen by claiming their opponents had deliberately lost at the Brit Oval on Friday - in return for "enormous sums of money".

Strauss has strongly refuted the allegation and has since made it clear he and his team will consider legal action against Butt if that is the best way to protect their reputations.

After much deliberation, England decided to carry on with the series - although a last-minute spat in the nets between Jonathan Trott and Pakistan's Wahab Riaz almost derailed everyone's best intentions.

"One thing that has come out of the latest allegations has been how close we've stuck together," said Bell.

"It has brought us tighter in our anger over what has been said.

"They are difficult circumstances to be involved in, but the guys knew they wanted to do what was right for the future of cricket and for the bigger picture.

"We knew that there would be a lot of people coming to Lord's to watch us play, and our responsibilities lay with them as much as with anything else.

"We spoke a lot about doing our bit for the cricket supporters who shouldn't be victimised for what is going on behind the scenes and who just want to pay their money and support England."

The decision to play on was reached only after hours of soul-searching.

"No-one liked hearing about those allegations at all," added Bell.

"There were guys who were pretty upset about it, and that came out in the meeting.

"But there was also a lot of confidence about our team and doing what was best for the fans.

"We also wanted to finish this series for the good of cricket."

It is not the first time Bell has been in such a meeting, having been part of England tours when security and moral issues were at stake over whether to stay in India or visit Zimbabwe.

"Everyone had their say over this - and like in the previous instances, there were differing views.

"But right at the outset, it was clear the guys would stick together whatever the outcome."