Fletcher 'let down' by Flintoff antics

12 April 2012

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher believes Andrew Flintoff "let him down" with his World Cup drinking antics.

Fletcher quit his post after the team failed to progress beyond the Super Eight stage in the tournament in the West Indies earlier this year.

"I've supported a lot of players and I supported Andrew but then he drank again at the World Cup after what had happened in Australia while I was taking a pasting," Fletcher, whose autobiography Behind The Shades is to be serialised in the Daily Mail next week, told the newspaper. "If he does ring me when he sees what I have written I will say, 'At the end of the day, Fred, you let me down in an area that you had real control over'."

Fletcher added: "I don't regret making him captain. The problem was, in the absence of Vaughan, there were so many unknowns. It's fascinating to wonder how good (Andrew) Strauss might have been as captain.

"But an imponderable is, how bad might Fred have been with the whole drinking thing if he hadn't had the responsibility of the captaincy? And would he have taken Steve Harmison with him?"

Zimbabwe-born coach Fletcher is hoping for a return to county cricket, having been at Glamorgan before taking up his post with England.

"I spent two years in county cricket and I'd like to do that again," he said.

"I think I have become a hell of a better coach since my time at Glamorgan and I know how to handle situations better. Having gained the experience I gained with England, it would be nice to go back and put into practice what I perceive to be missing in county cricket."

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