England's Andrew Flintoff avoids a bouncer during a practice session in Gros Islet, St. Lucia, yesterday. He also received a few from the English press after his romp last week. - Reuters

GROS ISLET, St. Lucia (AP):

THE ENGLAND squad returned to practice yesterday, intent on putting behind them a well-publicised drinking session that led to six players and two coaches being fined.

England do not play their final World Cup Group C match against Kenya until Saturday. And after Friday's incidents, the players are likely to keep a low profile.

"It's been a difficult two days or so and today is our first practice since the events and we're just looking to get back into cricket now," opener Ed Joyce said. "I've never really encountered anything like this.

"It's been a bit of a media frenzy and I'm not used to seeing so much stuff in a negative way in the newspapers back home so that's been pretty difficult."

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff went on an eight-hour drinking session that ended with him capsizing a small pedal boat in the ocean at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, according to British newspaper reports.

He was suspended for Sunday's 51-run win over Canada and told by team management that he would not captain England at the World Cup,even if injury-plagued skipper Michael Vaughan is sidelined.

Fast bowlers James Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Jon Lewis, wicketkeeper Paul Nixon and batsman Ian Bell were fined for being out late at a nightclub near the team hotel, after England's six-wicket loss to New Zealand. Photographs of the players in the club were published in British newspapers on Monday.

Want to move on

Bowling coach Kevin Shine and Jeremy Snape - a psychologist for spin bowlers Monty Panesar and Jamie Dalrymple - who were both with the players at the nightclub, were also fined.

"If you do the wrong thing then you're going to get in trouble from it, but the boys have said they are sorry and all we can do is move on," Joyce said. "This is the England cricket team, we've got to make sure we're doing the right thing and we've got to focus on our cricket for the rest of the tournament."

Joyce said the fallout from Friday had brought the players closer together.

"We've spent a lot of time together since it happened," he said. "We'd like to think we didn't need something like this to galvanise us because we were confident coming into this World Cup after what we did against Australia."

He said the squad didn't feel let down.

"It was a mistake and the boys involved have apologised to everyone and we just want to get on with life and get on with cricket," Joyce said.

England beat Australia in a tri-nation finals series in February after surrendering the Ashes Test series 5-0. England eliminated New Zealand on the way to that limited-overs series win, but the Black Caps got their revenge on Friday.

"We had a poor performance against New Zealand first up but that can happen against a good side," Joyce said. "It's just a matter of getting another win under our belts, getting through to the Super Eight and getting a win against one of the big sides to boost our confidence for the latter stages."

All-rounder Paul Collingwood said while there weren't any plans to appoint another vice captain, he'd like to be considered.

"I do not have a lot of captaincy experience in my professional career but the vice captaincy is an important role and of course I would like to be given that responsibility," Collingwood wrote in his online diary for the BBC website. "(But) my priority, and that of the whole team now, though, is to concentrate on a must-win game against Kenya."

Batsman Andrew Strauss is the other leading candidate as he was captain the England Test side last year, but he has not been in any England squad for either warm-up or World Cup matches.