Broad responds to drinking allegations

Stuart Broad has said he missed a sponsor-arranged media event on Thursday due to illness. Responding to newspaper claims that he had been involved in a "marathon drinking session", Broad admitted to staying out late the night before but said his non-appearance had been agreed upon.

Broad was supposed to join Ian Bell and Grant Elliott at a session arranged by England's Test sponsor Investec at Lord's but instead went home after feeling unwell. He said he had apologised to the ECB after adding to the week of negative press surrounding Andrew Strauss' decision to bar Kevin Pietersen from an international recall.

"I wasn't on England team duty but it was probably the last thing the ECB needed in the headlines after the week that's gone on with Straussy and KP," Broad said. "I didn't feel very well for an appearance on Thursday, spoke to the powers that be and decided that moving a bit of the appearance to Sunday and getting home and resting was probably a good option and that's what we did."

A report in the Daily Mail on Friday suggested that Broad had not made it back to his hotel until 7am. Writing in his column for the Mail's sister paper, the Mail on Sunday, Broad said he had been suffering from a migraine.

"While I admit I'd stayed out longer than I should have done professionally, the reason I missed the Investec event was because I suffered a severe migraine," he said.

"In nine years of playing for England I've never missed an event like this before and I'm very sorry on behalf of Investec and to my team-mate Ian Bell for leaving him to field 50 per cent of the questions on my behalf. It was definitely a story the ECB could have done without."