At the same time that Andrew Flintoff was playing through a chronic ankle problem in a forlorn attempt to help England in the ICC World Twenty20 last month, the rights to serialise Duncan Fletcher’s autobiography were being hawked around the media on the back of allegations concerning heavy drinking by the Ashes captain.

As the England coach, Fletcher always emphasised the importance of remaining loyal to his team, but now he has stirred an issue that can only upset a player who is at present in the United States trying to recover after a fourth, career-determining operation.

According to Fletcher, Flintoff was so badly affected by a heavy night of drinking in Sydney that a practice session had to be cancelled the day before a game against Australia on February 2, which England needed to win to avoid elimination from the Commonwealth Bank Series. Flintoff scored three runs and took one for 47 from eight overs during the match, but his side won and he lifted the trophy nine days later, extending unprompted and almost tearful thanks to Fletcher at the subsequent press conference.

If that result appeared to vindicate Fletcher’s decision not to strip Flintoff of the captaincy, then the softly-softly approach came back to haunt on the infamous ‘Fredalo’ night at the World Cup in March, when the drunken all-rounder had to be rescued from a drifting pedalo in St Lucia. Michael Vaughan, who returned as captain, said that Flintoff’s actions damaged morale and was a significant reason for the failure to qualify beyond the Super Eights stage.

Flintoff must take personal responsibility for his actions. Equally, if Fletcher had addressed the problem earlier, then the damage to player and team might have been reduced. Anybody who was in Australia for the ICC Super Series in 2005 knew that Flintoff would be under huge scrutiny the next winter. Yet England reacted indecisively when he fell off the rails in January, his mood troubled by poor results, bad form and niggles in his back and ankle.

There is not much evidence of pastoral care during this difficult period, but then the rationale for appointing Flintoff as captain was exposed over the weekend when Fletcher hinted that he might have been even more prone to self-destruction in the ranks and dragged others, such as Stephen Harmison, down to his level. That seems a very negative basis on which to select a leader for the biggest Ashes series in memory.

Responsibility to prevent such a descent lay with Fletcher, but it appears that he lacked the man-management skills and understanding with the player to feel confident of doing so. What is forgotten, incidentally, is the personal impact of the decision on Andrew Strauss, whose own career has declined sharply since being overlooked in favour of Flintoff.

Senior figures within the ECB were given copies of the book, Behind The Shades, around three weeks ago, having signed standard confidentiality agreements before publication next month. There is no relish to fan publicity by commenting, but they will be annoyed given that Flintoff, with help from the PCA, has made lifestyle changes since his public embarrassment in the Caribbean.

It fell to Harmison to support his mate yesterday, saying: “We had a terrible time and got heavily beaten and the priority is for us to learn from that, but here we are being dragged back into things that happened nine months ago. Fred tried his heart out and could not have done any more for the cause.”

Despite the appalling winter, Fletcher left after more than seven years in overall credit. He was good for England, but England were also good for him. The ECB gave him the platform to carve out a reputation at the highest level, supported him with central contracts and made him the highest-paid coach in the international game on an annual salary of about £300,000.

Ken Schofield, in the review commissioned after the Ashes whitewash, confirmed that Fletcher had become too powerful in a system without a logical chain of command. Fletcher picked the side and coached it. No amount of blame-shifting will camouflage his share of culpability for the woeful results - towards Flintoff or anybody else.

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