I'm in it with everyone else, says Graveney

Chairman of selectors David Graveney accepts his share of the blame for England's performance on their tour of Australia.

England have yet to win a match after 12 games on the tour, have already lost the Ashes and were defeated in yesterday's opening one-day international. They have also suffered a catalogue of injuries.

The situation will be discussed thoroughly by the management and Graveney insists he will hold his hand up where necessary.

"I help as much as I can and I do my job," Graveney told the BBC. "It's probably as tough a period as I've been through in my adult life. It's probably about as tough as it gets for everyone and a hundred times more tough for the players and particularly for Duncan (Fletcher) and Nasser (Hussain).

"I'm in it with everyone else. There's been some articles written about me personally which give the impression of me not putting my hand up. But I'm in it the same as everyone else. Obviously there's the selection committee and a group of players that I'm responsible for.

"The area of injured players will be debated at length and will be debated through the whole of the tour and probably debated at the end of the tour - and that will probably be the right time to address how we dealt with that situation."

"Andrew Flintoff had unfortunately not recovered at the rate people wanted him to. I feel very disappointed for Andrew and, as it happens, next week Andrew, myself, and members of the board are going to sit down and see what is the best way of getting Andrew fit.

"He's seen plenty of specialists in Australia and still we cannot get to the bottom of the problem, but we need to move the situation forward."

Graveney also defended Flintoff against claims from elsewhere that the Lancashire player behaved inappropriately at the Professional Cricketers' Association's dinner.

Graveney, who is also the chief executive of the PCA, said: "I would strongly refute those allegations. Andrew spoke at the dinner. He was in charge of a table containing many of our prominent sponsors who support our functions. Andrew enjoyed the evening no more no less than anyone else."

Graveney's next assignment as chairman of the England selectors will be to pick the squad for the World Cup. The fitness of players like Giles and Flintoff is an obvious concern with the squad due to be announced by the end of the year.

"The timing makes it extremely complicated for us," Graveney added. "We have some difficult decisions to make and understand the question of fitness. We have to make sure we make the right decisions with the medical advice we are given, which was the same case when we chose the squad to go to Australia."