Cricket:England legend Ian Botham has claimed the 'rage' that drives Andrew Flintoff to be a world-class cricketer led him to go on a drinking binge in St Lucia.
Flintoff has been widely pilloried for the incident which followed England's World Cup defeat to New Zealand, and ended with the Lancashire player being rescued from the sea.
But Botham, who was renowned for off-the-field antics during his own career, has defended Flintoff's behaviour and slammed his critics.
"The hanging judges, snitches and do-gooders who shopped 'Freddie'...should get a life," he said in his column for the Daily Mirror.
"Anybody who knows anything about professional sport will tell you that international cricketers are not robots.
"Different people express themselves in different ways and the only place they should be judged is where it matters - on the pitch."
He added: "You can't be a fired-up all-rounder and fast bowler, desperate to make an impact at the World Cup, if you just shut yourself away from the world after a bad result like England's defeat to New Zealand.
"Players respond to games like that in two ways: either you are drained and you slope off to bed, or you feel angry and frustrated so you go out and have a few drinks to get the rage out of your system."
Botham believes Flintoff's critics are guilty of double standards.
He added: "Presumably the same people who rushed to condemn Flintoff at the weekend didn't mind he won us the Ashes in 2005.
"I think the whole episode is a spectacular over-reaction and a rather sad indictment of our mentality as a nation."