Bat and ball / Frank Gregan / 24 October 2011 /

As worrying as the lack of discipline with bat and ball is the lack of discipline the England players have been showing towards the umpires and opponents. Their behaviour has not been up to the standard you'd expect from an international team, says Frank Gregan.

The one thing we English enjoy is laughing at other people's weaknesses. Subtly of course, we're not 'in-your-face-Stace,' more 'behind-your-back-Jack!' Previous tourists to our shores who have had to play in temperatures more conducive to skiing than cricket have endured taunts of 'foreign softies'' and the like. Two recent examples that spring to mind are Chris Gayle's West Indian side that toured in 2009 and MS Dhoni's India that were here this summer.

'What goes around comes around' had to kick in sooner or later. England enjoyed a great summer but are now having a torrid time of it against India. It comes as no surprise that there is very little sympathy for the English - they've dished it out and now they've got to suck it up.

Their conduct in India has come under the microscope and their strategy of verbal intimidation has been ridiculed. Quite right too, what's the point of trying to wind up an opposition batsman when all he has to say is "have a look at the scoreboard, mate!"

Having discovered that having a pop at the opponents is futile the English players have started to bicker amongst themselves. There's nothing wrong with that, sometimes a team needs to get edgy with each other in order to improve but there's always a line in the sand. The same applies to how a team treats the umpires. There's a thin dividing line between passion and petulance and Andy Flower's men are straying onto the wrong side of the track.

It's a test of Flower's leadership. A coach has to support his players but sometimes a coach has to accept that his players are in the wrong. Tim Bresnan was fined after the third ODI for snatching his cap off the umpire after a disappointing and frustrating over.

Flower defended his bowler, "To be quite honest, I think in this instance it is a harsh judgement - in that it was quite a frustrating over for him. His snatching of a cap was done out of frustration at five overthrows and an edge down to the third-man boundary, as opposed to any dissent for a decision. I have no problem at all with Tim's behaviour."

That last sentence is a cause for concern. The coach did a good job explaining the mitigating circumstances that surrounded the offence but the bottom line is he should then have accepted that Bresnan was wrong, apologised for the transgression and moved on. To say he has no problem with the behaviour is to condone petulance.

Even more worrying is that the management allowed Bresnan to plead not guilty. The evidence against Bresnan was as damning as something shown on one of those reality TV cop shows. You know the type, a traffic cop stops a guy who's speeding, uninsured, not wearing a seatbelt, talking on a mobile phone and eating a bacon sandwich! It goes back to the debate about respect for the umpire and everybody was able to see that Bresnan was hugely disrespectful to the umpire as he snatched back his cap.

Passion or petulance? That's an easy call, it's petulance. There's only one thing worse than getting hammered and that's getting hammered without dignity. England are on the end of a right pasting presently but let's be honest, it was pretty easy to call. England in the sub-continent against a fuming Indian side desperate for revenge were always going to be up against it.

India are [1.7] to win tomorrow's fifth match and complete the whitewash with England at [2.42]. The recommendation is to back India. They have been so superior in this series it's very difficult to see England salvaging some pride.

If England are unlikely to salvage pride in victory then they need to do it in defeat. Alastair Cook and his men need to learn how to lose and still retain some dignity. Let's face it, they should be used to it, it's only recently that the 50 over side has discovered winning - they used to get hammered regularly!

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