Mascarenhas latest to fall foul of Twitter

Another day, another social-media drama. To the names of Philip Hughes, Azeem Rafiq and Kevin Pietersen - three players whose non-selection issues have led to ill-advised outbursts on Twitter - can now be added the name of the Hampshire and Rajasthan Royals allrounder, Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Mascarenhas, who has been injured for most of the 2010 season, had not been a part of the limited-overs set-up since the Australia ODIs last September. If his prospects of an England recall seemed slim last week, they are pretty much non-existent now, following a furious outburst against the national selector, Geoff Miller, attributed to Mascarenhas' Twitter account

The root of his wrath came in an apparent snub during Hampshire's Championship fixture against Lancashire at Liverpool last week. Mascarenhas was not playing in the fixture, but the failure of Miller to acknowledge his existence evidently got his goat: "chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn't even come and say hi.. what a p****.. Doesn't take much to say hello does it?"

Eight hours later, however, and he was in full fuming mode. "Geoff Miller is a complete k***.. He had no clue what he is doing.. Fing p****...."

The comments, like Pietersen's last week, were subsequently removed from the site but they won't have improved Miller's view of Twitter. Following Pietersen's outburst after he was omitted from England's one-day squad - a decision he termed "a f*** up" - Miller said he wasn't impressed by the social-media tool. "I don't follow Twitter and I'm not a great believer in that kind of thing I don't think it is necessary."

Even before Pietersen's indiscretion there had been a suggestion England players would be banned from using Twitter, but that appears unlikely after the Professional Cricketers' Association said a way needed to be found to make the most of new technology to promote the game. At the moment, though, it's mostly bad publicity Twitter is offering.