The ECB has thwarted an attempt to blackmail England captain Eoin Morgan

The England Cricket Board has announced that one-day captain Eoin Morgan was the subject of a recent blackmail attempt by a man in Australia.

The man emailed the ECB demanding a “five-figure sum” in order to prevent him from revealing details of a relationship Morgan had with a woman five years ago to newspapers in Australia and the UK.

However, after discussions with the Metropolitan Police, ECB officials approached the man in Australia, and he has admitted his actions and apologised for them.

The man concerned is now in a relationship himself with the woman concerned and blamed jealousy for his threats.

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The ECB released a statement which read: “The ECB will not allow anyone to disrupt our team's performance on the field of play.

"We are wholly focussed on winning cricket matches. This matter has now been brought to a conclusion and we will not be seeking further action against the individual at this stage."

And ECB managing director Paul Downton said: " I am pleased that this issue has now been brought to a swift conclusion.

"At this point we'd like to thank the Metropolitan Police for their advice, which assisted us in dealing with this in the swiftest possible manner."

Morgan replaced Alastair Cook as England's one-day captain in December and scored 121 in a losing cause against Australia last week.

The England squad are currently halfway through a Tri-Series with Australia and India as they build towards the World Cup, which gets underway next month.

And they bounced back from defeat in their opening match with a convincing victory over India on Tuesday.