England's Ashes heroes say sorry for 'inappropriate behaviour' at The Oval

England's cricketers have apologised for the scenes that saw some of them urinate on The Oval pitch after their Ashes triumph.

Surrey were understood to be very annoyed at the incident and held talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board after Australian journalists reported seeing Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson relieving themselves on the Test wicket in the hours after England’s 3-0 Ashes series victory had been confirmed.

The players have not been punished by the ECB but they released a statement this morning to explain their behaviour.

It read: “The England cricket team would like to state that during our celebrations after winning the Ashes at no time was there any intention to disrespect Surrey CCC, the Oval or anyone else involved in the game we love.

“As a team we pride ourselves on respecting all things cricket including the opposition and the grounds we play at. We got carried away amongst the euphoria of winning such a prestigious series and accept that some of our behaviour was inappropriate.

“If that has caused any offence to anyone we apologise for that and want to reassure people that it was a simple error of judgement more than anything else.”