Monty Panesar 'thought England career was over'

Monty Panesar has admitted that he thought that he would never play for England again in the immediate aftermath of the Brighton nightclub scandal.

The left-arm spinner has been included in England's Ashes squad for the tour of Australia, but has confessed that he feared his international career was over earlier this year.

The 31-year-old was disciplined by his parent county Sussex and then overlooked by his country for the final Ashes Test of the summer for drunkenly urinating on a bouncer after being asked to leave a nightclub during an evening of partying in August.

"I know it looks terrible but I wasn't as drunk as people believe," he told the Daily Mail. "Yes, I'd had a lot to drink, but I wasn't paralytic. I was asked to leave and then got caught short. The next thing I knew the bouncers were shouting at me and running after me.

"I swear I didn't see them and I had no intention of purposefully urinating on them or near them. To be honest, I barely went at all and I'm pretty sure I didn't hit them.

"The next morning I woke up and thought, 'What have I done? 'My first reaction was that I'd just thrown my England career away, maybe even my whole cricket career. I felt very lonely and very depressed. It was a very dark time."

Panesar has taken 164 wickets at an average of 33.78 in his 48 Test matches.