ICC ban Twitter during World Cup matches

Long-serving Australia manager Steve Bernard has been 'tweeting' since August last year.

ICC chiefs insist they have no issues with anything Bernard has posted in the past.

But, given players are banned from having access to mobile phones during matches, they thought it prudent following the recent spot-fixing scandal involving Pakistan, to avoid a situation where team officials left themselves open to corruption claims, however baseless, as a result of a Twitter post.

"As recent events have shown, the ICC has a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and anything that can negate that possibility is something we are definitely interested in," ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald told AFP on Tuesday.

"This is just a precaution, it's not something we are overly concerned about. But we do feel a team manager's phone should be used for operational purposes only during matches.

"This applies to all teams and this decision has not been taken in response to anything the Australia team manager has said or done previously."

Players and officials will though still be allowed to post Twitter messages when their sides are not playing matches.

(c) 2011 AFP