England have shown they can rule with a rod of iron on a couple of occasions this year, twice leaving out Notts all-rounder Samit Patel on the grounds he failed to meet the required levels of fitness. But they refuse to identify the poor time-keepers or say whether they had been fined.
"We don't want to go into what mechanisms we have in place because it's something that is internal but I think he [Flintoff] knows he mustn't do again," said Strauss, who should have spent today talking about England's three-day Ashes warm-up match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, which starts tomorrow.
"He is very aware that he's stuffed up. He took it on the chin and has apologised to everyone concerned. It was a very sincere apology.
"There have been a few players who have been letting things slip in that respect and I think they all know it is not acceptable going forward." Flintoff is his own worst enemy, getting into far too many scrapes that could easily have been avoided.
"Of course there have been instances with Fred before but for us to start looking back on that would be completely wrong at this stage," Strauss said. "I know he is massively excited to be involved in the squad again. He feels bad about missing the bus and bad that this is an issue.
"We all know that if he is playing well he is a massive asset to have. But at the same time we don't want one rule for one and another for others. So it's important we have that consistency."
Asked about whether Flintoff missed the bus because he had drunk too much the night before, Strauss said: "It's a punctuality issue. He played a full part in the rest of the day's activities and seemed absolutely fine. So I don't think that's an issue."
