Guest Column Paul Nixon

I hope that I can make headlines for all the right reasons during the remainder of the World Cup after the events of the weekend. I went out for a meal with Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood after our defeat by New Zealand last Friday and then came back to the team hotel.

One or two of the other players were coming out of the hotel and going across the road to a local bar and asked if I would like to join them.

With hindsight I should have stayed in the hotel or gone to the team room there. But I stayed in the bar longer than I should have. Our photographs were taken by some supporters and passed on to the newspapers and six of us were fined by the management as a consequence.

I have no problem with that. I put my hands up and admit that I made a mistake. I take responsibility for my actions. I should have come back to the hotel.

We don’t have a curfew but I accept that leaving the bar at 2am was too late. Apart from a couple of Bacardi and cokes, I spent most of that evening drinking water or coke.

Suggestions that there is a drinking culture in the England dressing room are preposterous. There are some seriously fit and focused players out here who want to do well for England and this incident should not detract from that.

It is difficult to go straight to bed after you’ve played a game of cricket, particularly if it’s a day-night game, because of the adrenaline. You get such a buzz from playing international cricket that you are still thinking about the game a long time after the match and sometimes it does take time to wind down.

Perhaps there wouldn’t have been as much fuss made if we had beaten New Zealand. Teams the world over like to celebrate their victories.

But we are playing in the World Cup, we have got to be focused on our game and this incident has made us realise that we are always in the public eye.

We are all grown adults and we are all responsible for our actions. Duncan Fletcher was very angry and we know that we let him down. I think we are better aware of our public perception now.

If there is one good thing that has come out of this episode it is that the money from the fines imposed on us will be donated to the Chance to Shine scheme, a cricket charity doing a lot of good work for youth cricket around the country.

Hopefully we can draw a line under this now and concentrate purely on our cricket for the rest of the tournament. Perhaps it will help to galvanise us.

This started against Canada — the guys were focused to win and show that we are back on purely cricket. Perhaps we didn’t bowl like we know we can, but early wickets put the rate up and they were never in the game. Then we heard about poor Bob Woolmer and it took a bit of our spark away.

I feel I must say how very sad all the players and support staff are at the tragic news of the sudden death of our dear friend. Our heart-felt condolences go out to his family at this sad time.

The news came to us halfway through the Canadian innings. Ian Bell was devastated as he and Bob were very close.

Belly worked closely with Bob at Warwickshire and he was a major influence on his career. Every time Belly scored runs for England, he would get a congratulatory text from Bob. It didn’t matter where Bob was in the world he would still follow Belly’s progress with interest.

I spent a great deal of time with Bob while I was coaching out in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, in the 1990s. He was great fun, with a huge passion for the game which will be sadly missed.

We did the team song and dedicated it to Wooly, but the dressing room was sombre and a lot of the lads were thinking of their times with Bob.