Yorkshire spinner Azeem Rafiq has responded to being dropped by England Under 19s with a Twitter outburst.
England Under 19 captain angry at being disciplined
Azeem Rafiq has become the latest English cricketer to discover the pitfalls of Twitter.
Rafiq's angry, and unprintable, personal attack on England Under 19s coach John Abrahams - after being dropped for disciplinary reasons - has left the teenager on apparent probation from the role as captain.
Andrew Strauss was asked for his reaction, at the press conference ostensibly to preview the first npower Test against Pakistan, to the unseemly rant from his Under 19s counterpart.
It is understood Yorkshire's teenage off-spinning all-rounder was left out of the second 'Test' against Sri Lanka when his habit of staying out beyond mid-match curfews became an issue.
He responded by inadvertently publishing his opinion of Abrahams, describing him as "incompetent" and also using several expletives.
Rafiq soon deleted his comments from his Twitter feed, once he belatedly realised they were publicly available.
It is not the first time an England player has been caught out on Twitter - Rafiq's Yorkshire team-mate Tim Bresnan, called up to the squad on Wednesday to face Pakistan at Trent Bridge, having had cause for regret over some of his personal opinions last autumn.
Strauss said: "For a start, players should be aware that what they write on Twitter is going to be seen by people they might not want it to be seen by.
"We've had a number of occasions of that happening, so I'd say to be very careful on that.''
Advice
England's Test captain also points out there are more effective ways to respond to disappointment than losing your temper.
"The other thing I'd say is that there is a right way to react to things and there is a wrong way - and venting your frustration is not the right way to do it, especially if you have been in the wrong.
"You need to take it on the chin and learn from it; otherwise, there are plenty of other people who can do it better than you.
"If you haven't led by example and have let yourself down you've got to learn from it."
It is the second time Rafiq has found himself in the thick of a controversy in his short career so far.
But on the last occasion, when Yorkshire were thrown out of the 2008 Twenty20 Cup because of their failure to properly register the Pakistan-born player, there was no suggestion the problem was of Rafiq's own making.
