The England and Wales Cricket Board was embarrassed last night after discovering criticism of England players on its own website.
Nasser Hussain is one of several senior players portrayed unflatteringly, along with more obvious targets such as Graeme Hick and Robert Croft.
The website insisted that Hussain "needs to score some runs... the team simply cannot afford regular failures from their No3". Hick is apparently "quite fortunate to make the trip" after his poor form in Pakistan and is "unlikely to be a first choice for the Test team".
Croft was described as "a surprise recall" who "will need to improve his performance markedly if he is to make an impression". And Alec Stewart is "relatively uncomfortable against spin... England need him to score much more consistently".
Two highly regarded young batsmen did not escape harsh words either. Marcus Trescothick was told that he "lacks much foot movement and still gives his wicket away too often when set". And Michael Vaughan is "another who needs to deliver". Although he missed all three Tests in Pakistan because of injury, "it should be remembered he failed in all his warm-up innings".
The website also nominated Graham Thorpe as Hussain's likely successor as skipper. It said: "Thorpe is increasingly involved in strategy discussions and his graduation to the ranks of senior player may well herald promotion to the captaincy in due course."
The ECB handed over the running of the site to cricinfo, which runs sites for the boards of all Test-playing countries, in a lucrative deal last year.
Few could argue with some of the comments and they certainly make a change from the banal pen pictures normally produced for official publications. But once the contents were brought to the attention of Andrew Walpole, England's media man on tour, frantic phone calls between Colombo and London ensued.
Eventually he issued a statement: "We will be discussing this matter with cricinfo at the earliest opportunity. The pen pictures were not endorsed by the ECB... The board is keen to see the England team portrayed in a positive light and we believe the pen pictures do not fully reflect the achievements of the team over the last 12 months."
Cricinfo claimed yesterday that the offending profiles, which it had in any event removed "because of all this furore", actually appeared on its Sri Lankan board website. "I can understand the confusion," said Alex Balfour, cricinfo's director of business development. "It was linked from the ECB site, so it may have been thought to have been ECB-endorsed."
The controversy mirrors a row at Euro 2000 after an unflattering report on the England football team appeared on Uefa's official website.
After England's first full day in Sri Lanka, the coach Duncan Fletcher spoke about the danger of his players being beguiled by the social freedom of this island. After eight weeks in Pakistan that included Ramadan, Sri Lanka's sun-kissed beaches and ready supply of alcohol must seem very tempting.
"There might be a temptation for the players to take their feet off the pedal," Fletcher explained. "But we are dealing with professional sportsmen and they know what is expected. I believe they will behave and prepare in an appropriate way.
"And I was pleased that hardly any of the players drank alcohol on the flight over. That was great to see."
