Monty Panesar finds unexpected response to bouncers in new escapade

IF England did not possess in Graeme Swann its best spin bowler for at least 30 years, Monty Panesar would be at Durham this morning.

Panesar faces uncertain future

IF England did not possess in Graeme Swann its best spin bowler for at least 30 years, Monty Panesar would be at Durham this morning with roughly 300 Test wickets to his credit as a key member of the team preparing to convert Ashes retention into a series victory.

Instead, he will be sweating over his immediate future with both Sussex and England after the sad, seedy revelation that he was fined by police in the early hours of Monday morning for being drunk and disorderly when he urinated over bouncers at a nightclub in Brighton.

The Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) has offered to help Panesar while Sussex continue the investigation they began on Monday. The player himself, through a spokesman, has apologised "unreservedly for any offence caused". England are leaving the matter to Sussex, although he is on an incremental contract and was with the squad only last week for the third Test at Old Trafford.

They will not pick him if and while he is suspended by the county.

"This is something we are treating very seriously," Zac Toumazi, the Sussex chief executive, said. "Monty is a hugely talented cricketer and with that comes challenges."

Panesar has two years remaining on his Sussex contract after this season. Even if he has not committed an outright sacking offence, he is likely to face a ban stretching into the final Ashes Test at The Oval beginning on August 21. England may want to cover themselves with a second spin bowler in the squad for that contest.

Andy Flower, the team director, will not be amused. It is worth remembering that Ben Stokes and Matt Coles were both sent home from the England Lions tour of Australia this year for drinking and missing a curfew, lesser offences albeit after warnings and while on England duty.

Reports time the incident at about 3.30am. Panesar had allegedly been told to leave the club for annoying a group of girls. He then went to the promenade above and relieved himself on to startled door staff beneath.

Two of the bouncers chased him into a pizza parlour where they put him in an armlock as Panesar shouted for help. They escorted him back to the club where he was given a fixed penalty notice by police.

He has been involved with police before. In early 2011 he was arrested on suspicion of common assault after a public row with his wife, Gursharan, in the car park of a pub in his home town of Luton. He was taken from a house nearby before being released without charge after interview.

The latest unflattering reports will further tarnish his reputation. With his black patka, he remains the most recognisable England cricketer, bar Kevin Pietersen. Hapless batting and erratic fielding contribute to an "everyman" feel to his cricket that has stoked his popularity. Many followers will be surprised that he is no longer teetotal.

Valuing Panesar a few years ago, Andrew Strauss, the England captain at the time, detailed his ability as a spin bowler before referring obliquely to his "role in the dressing room". Asked to describe this role, Strauss was uncharacteristically lost for words. He shrugged his shoulders and said: "Well, he's just Monty isn't he?"

Players loved Panesar's simple enthusiasm for the game, the way he continually asked questions as though he was a naive child rather than a high-class bowler. On one occasion he taught them to Bhangra dance in the dressing room by telling them to imagine they were changing a light bulb with one hand and stroking a dog with the other. Even Duncan Fletcher, the jowly coach, was said to be close to tears of laughter.

His behaviour, though, is rumoured to have become increasingly eccentric in India last winter and Sussex dropped him for an County Championship game against Middlesex this summer, partly because he had undergone an injection in his shoulder but also because they were unhappy with his attitude.

When England asked him to join the squad for practice at Lord's before the second Test it allowed Flower the opportunity to assess Panesar's state of mind as well as form in a relatively poor season should he be needed for the subsequent contest. That he was then selected for Manchester suggests that Flower was content.

No doubt Panesar deserves all the criticism that will inevitably come his way. A footballer of equal stature would be vilified with the very morals of the sport placed under scrutiny. The difficulty for Sussex is to determine whether this incident is completely isolated, in which case punishment will suffice, or whether Panesar is a man in deeper trouble. They have a duty of care, after all.

The PCA launched a series of tutorials on personal wellbeing last year. Jason Ratcliffe, the deputy chief executive, said: "We can sometimes be a safety net. We need to support all cricketers and we have offered to help Monty. That is as much as we can do, and see whether Monty picks us up on that."

Paul Collingwood, a former England team-mate, believes that Panesar can add to his 48 Tests and 164 wickets. "This is not great news for Monty, it is not a nice story, but I do not think the selectors will think that he won't take wickets because of what he has done," he said.

The Times