Andrew Strauss: Players are entitled to celebrate but there’s no excuse for what happened after the Ashes at the Oval

Andrew Strauss has had a summer to remember; a widely praised debut as a television commentator and the publication of his ­autobiography. But there was one moment that made him “feel really uncomfortable”.

This was the infamous moment when the England players, celebrating the Ashes series win, urinated on The Kia Oval pitch.

“I was surprised,” he tells me. “Certainly, while I was captain, I wanted to avoid, at all costs, English cricket being in the news for the wrong reasons. Players have an obligation and a duty to be role models so you’ve got to be very careful what you do and don’t do. But also it’s distracting. It takes away from what your focus should be: cricket.”