Eoin Morgan has accused Alex Hales of showing a “complete disregard” for England’s team culture in a withering assessment of the opening batsman over his 21-day ban for recreational drug use.

The England captain was speaking for the first time since Hales was thrown out of the World Cup squad this week and insisted he had been unaware of the transgression until it was revealed by the Guardian last week.

At a press conference before Friday’s one-off ODI against Ireland in Malahide – a match in which the much-hyped fast bowler Jofra Archer will be handed a debut as he seeks to make England’s final World Cup squad on 23 May – Morgan was visibly angered by the events that prompted him to stand down his much-feared reserve batsman.

Eoin Morgan hopes Jofra Archer can blow away England’s Hales storm Read more

“We’ve worked extremely hard on our culture in the last 18 months since the Bristol incident,” said Morgan, in reference to the street fight in September 2017 for which Hales and Ben Stokes were hit with two charges apiece of bringing the game into disrepute but the latter was found not guilty of affray by a jury last summer.

“It really did open our eyes to ourselves, not just being judged as performers but how we are as role models. We have been working on it to try and find values that everybody across all three formats can adhere to and those values have been in place the past six months.

“Unfortunately Alex’s actions have shown complete disregard for those values. This has created a lack of trust between Alex and the team.”

Morgan revealed he was among a number of concerned teammates who contacted Hales when he was first withdrawn from Nottinghamshire’s Royal London Cup games for what were called “personal reasons” and was assured by the batsman that he was in fact OK.

Quick guide Royal London One-Day Cup roundup Show Hide An astonishing innings of 171 from 126 balls by David Wiese almost carried Sussex to an improbable win against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl. The all-rounder hit 14 fours and nine sixes and rescued his side from 103 for five in pursuit of a victory target of 356. Wiese added 232 for the sixth wicket with Ben Brown to bring the target down to 21 off 18 balls but when Brown was out for 64, Wiese followed in the next over and Sussex ended up all out for 346. Earlier Tom Alsop (124) and Aiden Markram (130) put on 184 for the second wicket to help Hampshire to a total that proved to be just enough. Kent climbed off the bottom of the South Group, overtaking their hosts in the process, with an eight-wicket defeat of Surrey at the Oval. Surrey collapsed to 127 all out, despite an unbeaten 62 from Dean Elgar, with Matt Milnes taking three for 37. Kent knocked off the runs in 28 overs, Daniel Bell-Drummond making 41 before Matt Renshaw (32no) and Heino Kuhn (36no) saw their side home. Lancashire climbed to second in the North Group with a 30-run victory over Derbyshire at Old Trafford in a match reduced by rain to 38 overs per side. Keaton Jennings hit 84 and Jake Lehmann made an unbeaten 77 on debut as Lancashire finished on 239 for six. Derbyshire fell short at 209 for seven despite a quickfire 52 off 39 balls by Anuj Dal.

But upon learning the true reason for his break from cricket was a 21-day ban for a second recreational drugs violation, Morgan called a meeting of senior players – Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes – at the team’s training camp in Cardiff last weekend to decide the way forward.

Morgan said: “We all agreed the best decision for the team was for Alex to be deselected. I relayed this to [the director of England cricket] Ashley Giles, because we don’t have final say, I can only give the view in the changing room and how guys feel.

“We will need at least 15 men to win that World Cup. Whatever way Alex would have dealt with it, the other 14 people would have been dragged down and that would have been quite a weight taken forward. That outweighed his performance. We felt this was the best decision simply because he did not adhere to everything that we have been working towards for a very long time.”

Morgan, who claimed to be “happy” with the decision, declined to consider what he called the “hypothetical” scenario of the truth not emerging and the team heading into this summer’s all-important World Cup with Hales still part of the squad. He accepted, however, the senior figures at the England and Wales Cricket Board who knew of the ban – Giles and the chief executive, Tom Harrison – were unable to inform him sooner as they were bound by confidentiality clauses in the policy.

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Indeed Giles, also in Malahide, elaborated on this further, insisting there was no deliberate attempt at a cover-up. Hales, he claimed, was not being punished a second time for his violation but had instead been ejected simply to limit the damage to the team.

“You can’t have double jeopardy,” said Giles. “[But] once the story broke on Friday, the effect of that, the effect on the environment and the players, management and captain, was really strong. Our responsibility is making sure we’re in the best possible shape going into the World Cup.”

Giles confirmed the recreational drugs policy will be reviewed, after it left the director of cricket and Harrison unable to share news of the ban with the selectors before they named their preliminary World Cup squad. He also alluded to a “string of poor behaviour” from Hales and expressed disappointment at the statement that followed from the batsman’s management company which spoke of broken promises.

Given there is a Twenty20 World Cup taking place in Australia next year, it looked a hugely damaging move by Hales although Giles once again stressed “the door is not closed, whatever people think”.

Hales, whose ban expired on Thursday, is expected to play for Nottinghamshire against Durham on Friday, with his short-term goal surely to win back favour at the county before his contract expires at the end of the season.