Strauss urges caution over Twitter use during Ashes

England cricket captain to give players strict guidelines about use of micro-blogging site during tour to Australia.

LONDON: England captain Andrew Strauss will give his players strict guidelines about the use of micro-blogging website Twitter during the forthcoming tour to Australia.

Strauss and head coach Andy Flower have decided against imposing a total ban on the squad posting messages on Twitter during the Ashes showdown, which begins in Brisbane on November 25.

But they are keen to avoid the kind of controversy caused when England batsman Kevin Pietersen reacted to his omission from the team's one-day matches against Pakistan last month with a foul-mouthed rant on Twitter.

Pietersen is one of several England players who regularly use Twitter, with others including James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad.

Strauss, whose side won the last Ashes meeting with Australia 2-1 in 2009, said: "We like to treat people like adults and a lot of people on our team like using it.”

"We're going to come up with a set of guidelines as to what's best to put on there and what's best not to put on there.”

"I think the players recognise they've got a responsibility to their team-mates to make sure that certain stuff stays within the four wall of the dressing room, and I think they're very happy to abide by that."

Asked if he planned to moderate players' tweets himself, Strauss said, "I think it'll be self-policing.”

"The tweeter with the most fans can maybe oversee that sort of thing."