England's team management will not stop members of the side who want to go to former team-mate Ben Hollioake's funeral in Perth on Wednesday.

While the next Test doesn't start in Auckland until Saturday, there is a chance that some players could, if the flight arrangements are suitable, make the trip to Australia.

England captain Nasser Hussain said at the press conference tonight after the drawn second National Bank Test, "I don't think we could hold anyone back."

Hussain said the second Test had been handled very professionally by the players under all the circumstances.

They were 90 runs short of where they wanted to be when batting first but despite that it had been a good performance by the side.

"We fought pretty well, we batted pretty well, bowled pretty well, and set the game up nicely today.

"Unfortunately, it didn't quite reverse swing as much as we'd have liked, or spin as much as we'd have liked, but we were very professional and given what happened earlier in the week a lot of pride and passion was shown in the team," he said.

"It started to reverse swing in the first innings after about 40 overs and today it was after about 60 overs and if you saw it in the first innings, it was six wickets from Andy Caddick reversing it that was just as much a threat as the spin."

When making his declaration which left New Zealand with 86 overs in which to score 356 to win, he said, he had taken into account the Nathan Astle factor after his batting assault in the first Test and the fact the side was already 1-0 up in the series.

"I thought it was a pretty fair declaration.

"We'd made all the running in the game. We could have easily batted on and said 'thank you very much' but we gave them a sniff and they didn't take it, so we stuck at our tasks," he said.

As for particular developments from the match he acknowledged that Andrew Flintoff, who scored a century in the first Test, had backed it up well with a hard-hit 75 today.

But added that Flintoff knew he had more work to do with his batting to become an even better, and more consistent, player.

"He needs to work at some other situations, but he's been there with the ball for us all winter, he's caught well and now he's worked hard on his batting and his fitness. If he works at the things he needs to, he could become a very good cricketer," he said.

Wicket-keeper James Foster, who dropped a very costly chance off Stephen Fleming when the New Zealand captain was only one before he went on to bat for 143 minutes to help save his side, had learned just how hard Test cricket was.

He had kept wickets well in India and not batted so well, but was not batting well and not 'keeping as well as he had. It was a case of him getting the balance right, he said.

Hussain also defended his bowling tactics with left-arm spinner Ashley Giles saying it was something that kept the media talking about things but the fact had been that 60% of the wickets in the match had been the result of the ball pitching in what he described as "the bunker outside leg stump" that was what they were looking to exploit.

He was also satisfied with his first innings slip catch, a stunner low down to his left, to dismiss Astle. He had a weakness on that side and had dropped several during practice with coach Duncan Fletcher during the warm-ups and described it as one of the better ones he had taken.

© CricInfo