ALEX HALES faces an angry backlash from England players and cricket chiefs after he was dumped from the World Cup squad.
Senior players were said to be feeling let down at his latest disciplinary breach as it emerged Hales didn’t even apologise to the team.
Now the drugs policy that allowed Hales’ three-week ban to remain secret is to be rewritten.
England hit back over Hales’ claim he was promised a place in the World Cup despite TWICE testing positive for drugs.
The players were surprised that Hales, instead of saying ‘sorry’ to them, went on the offensive with an incendiary statement.
The decision to dump the Notts batsman was met with 100 per cent agreement from players and management.
Hales packed his bags and left the training camp in Wales within minutes of being told his World Cup was over.
His management company released a statement accusing senior ECB figures of betrayal and reneging on an agreement to keep him in the squad.
But team supremo Ashley Giles insists he was sworn to secrecy when told about the Hales situation more than two weeks ago.
That is why he did not inform one-day captain Eoin Morgan, head coach Trevor Bayliss or chief selector Ed Smith.
And that is why Hales thought he would stay in the squad — because Giles believed he was bound by confidentiality.
It seems clear that, if Hales’ ban had remained secret, he could have played in the World Cup without anybody involved with England knowing — other than the batsman himself, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and Giles.
Once it leaked last week, however, Giles, Morgan and Bayliss say they had no choice other than to remove Hales.
An ECB source said: “The drugs policy is not fit for purpose.
“Ashley Giles was told he could not tell anybody but other people say he could in fact have gone public.
There are too many grey areas. It will have to be rewritten but it is a complicated process involving the ECB, the players’ association, lawyers and medics.”
The regulations were drawn up in the wake of the death of former Glamorgan and Surrey batsman Tom Maynard in 2012 with player welfare a priority.
Another source said: “How many players are there playing in county cricket who have failed one or two drugs tests?”
Hales is expected to make his comeback for Notts against Durham on Friday — the same day as England begin their summer against Ireland in Dublin.
