Angry with himself for yet another disciplinary transgression, England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff plans to take out his pent-up frustration on Australia during the Ashes beginning on Wednesday.

Flintoff had missed the team bus during a weekend trip to Belgium recently, upsetting the team management. Flintoff himself is unhappy but has vowed to make amends by tormenting Australia. “I’m angry with myself for messing up again, but I’ll make sure I take it out on Australia. I don’t need any further incentive to perform in the Ashes. But I am determined to try to make what happened in Belgium a distant memory,” he said.

“I made a mistake and I apologised to all concerned, and though I’m not going to go into what I said, my apology was sincere. The best thing I can do now is try to put the incident behind me and focus all my energy on what’s ahead,” he added.

Flintoff also said that verbal showdowns would be unavoidable. “There’s an unwritten rule, no personal attacks — just random abuse. Some of the stuff that’s gone on in the past is the funny stuff,” he said.