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Someone needs to get a grip of the England players

To have to discipline one player looks like misfortune, to discipline two is surely carelessness. So what on earth does it say if you have to discipline several?

This is what has happened with the England cricket team and it surely raises questions about how well the team is being managed as well as how committed, and respectful, the players are of the cause. Andrew Flintoff has taken a lot of flak over his latest gross error of judgement but he is not quite alone. As Andrew Strauss conceded, several players had been guilty of poor timekeeping this year. Perhaps this is a team with a lot of I's in it.

There's been a lot of talk about what a good partnership Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower have established but the team has gone through some turbulent times in the last couple of years and you don't need a degree in man-management to work out that the dressing-room dynamics have been tricky.

Maybe these things are unconnected but maybe they are. In recent times we've had Flintoff turning up the worse for wear for practice during a one-day series in Australia (he was the captain). A few weeks after that we had the Pedalo affair (he was the vice-captain). Last winter we had his helicopter ride hours after England were all out for 51 in Jamaica. Last weekend, he missed the team bus for a trip to war-graves in Belgium the night after a team dinner.

But we've also had Paul Collingwood visiting a lap-dancing bar in Cape Town (he was one-day captain) and Kevin Pietersen challenging the authority of the coach to such an extent (ie, either he goes or I do) that he was stripped of the captaincy.

We've also had James Anderson (shoulder-barging), Stuart Broad (distraction tactics as he ran into bowl) and in fact the entire team (throwing jelly-beans on the pitch) challenging the spirit of the game.

We've had Samit Patel failing to meet the requisite fitness levels despite warnings about his physical condition (and being dropped from the squad as a result).

Who is in charge and who is listening to what they are saying?

Bat first: brave, perhaps, but predictable from Ponting

Ricky Ponting faced a tricky decision at New Road when he won the toss. There was a bit in the pitch so facing Steve Harmison and Graham Onions, the two leading wicket-takers in the country, armed with the new ball was potentially a testing proposition for the Aussies (though you never quite know with Harmy).

Ponting opted to bat anyway. Brave decision, nodded the pundits sagely. Give the batsmen a tough work-out ahead of Cardiff. Except it didn't work too well as both Phillip Hughes and Ponting himself were out cheaply. It was hard going all day.

So was it brave, or foolhardy, or just plain wrong to bat? Well, it was certainly predictable, because Ponting always bats first on winning the toss. Or at least he has done for the last four years since his little slip-up at Edgbaston in the 2005 Ashes when he famously invited England to bat on what was a belting pitch (England duly raced to 407 in 80 overs). Ponting denied rumours of a dressing-room argument with Shane Warne over the decision but conceded that Warne did not agree with what he'd done.

Perhaps Ponting is so traumatised by that experience - England won by two runs - that he simply refuses to contemplate doing anything other than bat when the coins falls his way. He's had 18 opportunities since the Abberation of Edgbaston and all 18 times he's batted. Three of those games were lost but of course you never get nailed for losing after batting first like you do when you lose after bowling first.

So when Ponting wins the toss this summer don't hold your breath over what he's going to do. He'll be batting. After all, Warney's going to be up there in the commentary box waiting to pass verdict. And judging by what Jeff Thomson's been saying, there's already Aussies out there who don't think Ponting's anything great in the leadership stakes.

THE LIST: AN XI OF JONESES WHO HAVE PLAYED TEST CRICKET

1 Andrew Jones (New Zealand)
2 AO Jones (England, captain)
3 Richard Jones (New Zealand)
4 Dean Jones (Australia)
5 Samuel Jones (Australia)
6 Charles Jones (West Indies)
7 Geraint Jones (England, wkt)
8 Simon Jones (England)
9 Jeff Jones (England)
10 Prior Jones (West Indies)
11 Ernie Jones (Australia)