Andrew Strauss condones use of Twitter

(GETTY IMAGES)

England skipper Andrew Strauss presented a straight bat to questions about batsman Kevin Pietersen's undiplomatic tweeting today, saying it was a good thing all his players were not as boring as their captain.

Pietersen branded Adelaide groundstaff "pathetic" on his twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/kevinpp24) on Wednesday after they failed to cover the nets during a rainstorm, forcing England to train indoors.

Strauss said Pietersen had not breached England's code of conduct over the use of social media and rejected the suggestion that the use of Twitter should be banned in the team.

"I wouldn't prefer all of my players to be exactly like me, it would be a pretty boring dressing room," he said.

"Everyone's different and a lot of the guys really enjoy it and it is a good way of broadening the appeal of the game, it allows players to contact people who are into the game.

"There's some benefits to it but it has to be used responsibly and by-and-large it has been. We need to make sure we don't have more incidents of the type we have seen before."

The "incidents" Strauss was referring to were former captain Pietersen and all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas being fined for using obscenities in Tweets criticising England selectors earlier this year.

Pietersen, Strauss said, had "vented his frustration" on Wednesday after being unable to have a "long bat" two days before the start of the second test.

The England captain, who does not have a Twitter account, agreed that incident had not been entirely welcome.

"We don't want anything that distracts our attention from what's important, which is getting on the cricket pitch and performing," he said.

Several players on both sides are prolific Twitter users but cricket-related Tweets from England players stopped abruptly after the start of the first test only resuming afterwards.

The second Ashes test begins in Adelaide on Friday with the five-match series all square after the draw in Brisbane.