England captain Andrew Strauss has issued a warning to his players about using social networking sites such as Twitter. The comments come after Azeem Rafiq’s rant on the site about being dropped for an England Under-19 match.

The Yorkshire bowler used his Twitter account to launch an explosive attack on Coach John Abrahams after being left out for disciplinary reasons.

Strauss’ advice for Rafiq and other England players was to “be careful” and “be aware that what they write is going to be seen by people they might not want it to be seen by.”

Cricket Betting pundits note that several England cricketers have Twitter accounts now. James Anderson and Graeme Swann have been on there for a while, Paul Collingwood has had a go and recent additions include Kevin Pietersen and Steven Finn.

Then there is Tim Bresnan who got in trouble with the ECB after swearing on his page last year. All of these players should certainly take Strauss’ advice of being careful, especially during a series against Pakistan, which online sports betting odds expect to be incredibly tight.