But Strauss replied: "I think there is this impression there that I was always telling KP not to speak to the opposition; that's something that I don't think I'd ever do to KP. He did that whoever we played against; he always had his friends in the opposition. I just don't see how you can do that, personally.
I think that if you're playing for a team and potentially helping the opposition get one over one of your own players, no.
Fellow former England captain Michael Vaughan, who skippered Pietersen until retiring in , felt Pietersen had crossed a line. Broadcaster Piers Morgan is resolute in his belief that Pietersen was wrongly made an example of. And it was that which was used as the real stick to beat him with.
Pietersen was dropped for the final Test of the series at Lord's - a match England had to win to stop South Africa replacing them as the No 1 Test team in the world but failed to do so - and KP was successfully reintegrated back into the team after making a public apology to his team-mates, supporters and the ECB. These are men who care deeply about the fortunes of the England team and its image, and it is ironic that they were the people who led the reintegration of Kevin Pietersen into the England squad in Prior was drawn into a row on Twitter with Piers Morgan, the former Mirror editor who has long been Pietersen's highest-profile backer, on Thursday after being accused of "backstabbing" following a team meeting in Melbourne.
Morgan had already described Cook as "a repulsive little weasel". It was after the meeting following the Boxing Day Test defeat that Pietersen, rather than captain Alastair Cook, took it on himself to tell Flower where the players felt he was going wrong. The ECB have refused to clarify the details of the fallout because of legal complications, including confidentially clauses in the Pietersen settlement. But this version of events from inside the dressing room tallies with that of the Pietersen camp, who maintain that their man was the only player prepared to tell Flower some home truths.
Makes you a flaming hypocrite. And slaughtered Flower. Re-integrated: Team-mate Matt Prior posted this picture of Pietersen on Twitter in late with the caption: '"Re-integration complete. Well played". Ironically, Prior had acted as peacemaker when Pietersen was left out of the England team in following a number of issues over his contract. Argos AO. Privacy Policy Feedback. Share this article Share.
Kevin Pietersen 's final days as an England player were dominated by hotel-room meetings, dismissive glances, brooding resentment and mistrust and finally open-mouth shock as he listened to the explanations for his sacking given to him by the ECB hierarchy. The final straw in his fractured relationship with Andy Flower came on the eve of the final Ashes Test in Sydney when Flower summoned Pietersen to his room to ask about the player's rubbishing of him during an outspoken team meeting which had been convened, without the support staff, following the defeat in Melbourne.
Pietersen was also angered by the fact Prior, whose assertive role as vice captain often compensated for Alastair Cook's reticence as captain, was so central to the meeting despite being dropped. He calls the decision to put the emphasis on fitness levels between the fourth and fifth Test "insane" and "a move right out of the Flower playbook" and explains how he pulled Cook aside to tell him he was wrong. Pietersen admits that during that meeting he "got into a huge argument" with Flower who told Pietersen "you really disappoint me.
As Pietersen was leaving the room, he tells that Flower said to him that he hoped he scored some runs in the Test. Shortly after the Sydney Test finished, inside three days, the rumours of Pietersen's future started circulating. A little over a month later, in another hotel room, this time across the road from Lord's, he had his international career ended by Paul Downton, the new managing director of England cricket, who as Pietersen discovered on a Google search "was a lower-order middle-order batsman with a Test average of Downton explained his decision by saying he had never seen anyone so "disengaged" from the team as he witnessed over the three days of the Sydney Test.
In his autobiography, Pietersen writes that he felt was a pre-ordained decision to end his career. The only charge seems to be that Paul Downton, watching his very first Test in his brand-new job, opted to study me exclusively and concluded that I looked 'disengaged'…I would love to know how any cricketer facing Aussie bowlers on their home turf could look 'disinterested'.
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