ALEX HALES’ DESELECTION from all England squads ahead of the World Cup came as a result of a ‘complete breakdown in trust’, captain Eoin Morgan has said.

The opening batsman recently served a reported 21-day suspension for what his spokesman described as an ‘off-field incident’. He was reportedly suspended for recreational drug use.

On Monday Hales was withdrawn from England’s preliminary World Cup squad, as well as the panel for the one-day international against Ireland in Malahide on Friday and the ODI series and T20 against Pakistan, by director of England cricket Ashley Giles.

Ahead of the meeting with Ireland at Malahide, Morgan told this afternoon’s press conference: “Everybody in a senior players’ meeting agreed that the best decision was for Alex to be deselected.

“We believe it is the right call, made considering everyone in the squad.

“We have worked extremely hard over the last 18 months to establish our culture and work towards values that everyone across all three formats could adhere to, respect and relate to.

“We have been at that stage for six or seven months. They are in place. There has been a complete disregard for those values.

“There has been a complete breakdown in trust between Alex and the team. Everybody in the senior players’ meeting agreed that the best decision for the team and the culture moving forward was for Alex to be deselected.

“We don’t make that final call. I communicated this to Ashley Giles and the decision was made. It’s important now that Alex uses the support around him to try to turn things around.”

England face Ireland in a one-off ODI at Malahide tomorrow, with the first ball being bowled at 10.45am. 

Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here: