DUNCAN Fletcher insists he was right to expose Andrew Flintoff's drinking antics during the last Ashes tour.

The former England head coach has come under fire for revealing the country's premier all-rounder had turned up to practice during the tour of Australia at the end of last year still intoxicated after a night out.

But Fletcher claims he only decided to reveal all in his book after he saw Flintoff's behaviour repeated during the infamous pedalo' affair at this year's World Cup.

From my point of view, the two incidents were directly linked," said Fletcher. "You had a situation where an incident took place and rightly or wrongly I kept it in-house, then in three or four weeks we had a similar affair.

I just thought it was important it was brought out in the open. If the pedalo affair hadn't happened, I wouldn't have revealed it (the Ashes incident)."

But the decision to go public has been dubbed a betrayal of trust by Steve Harmison, the first current England Test player to react to the storm caused by Fletcher's autobiography Behind the Shades'.

There is an unwritten code in sport,'' said Harmison. The code states that what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. It was a code very dear to Duncan Fletcher's heart and, sadly, Duncan Fletcher has broken it.

You have to be able to express yourself honestly and without restraint, without wondering whether someone is going to spill the beans or reveal all in a book."