Fletcher explains Flintoff revelation

The former England head coach has come under fire for revealing the country's premier all-rounder had turned up to practice during the tour of Australia at the end of last year still intoxicated after a night out.

"I just thought it was important it was brought out in the open," said Fletcher.

Fletcher claims he only decided to reveal all in his book after he saw Flintoff's behaviour repeated during the infamous 'pedalo' affair at this year's World Cup.

"People have turned round and said, 'should I have brought it up?' Fletcher said in the Sunday Telegraph.

"From my point of view, the two (incidents) were directly linked. You had a situation where an incident took place and rightly or wrongly I kept it in-house, then in three or four weeks' time we had a similar affair.

"If the pedalo affair hadn't happened, I wouldn't have revealed it (the Ashes incident)," he said.

"Having had a chat with him, if nothing had happened, I definitely wouldn't have revealed it. But they were so directly linked I was taken aback by it: enough is enough sort of thing."

The decision to go public has been dubbed a betrayal of trust by Steve Harmison, who said in the Mail on Sunday: "There is an unwritten code in sport."

"The code states that what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. It was a code very dear to Duncan Fletcher's heart and, sadly, Duncan Fletcher has broken it," he added.