Kevin Pietersen’s England career was brought to an end due to concerns about his support for captain Alastair Cook, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) revealed on Sunday.
Pietersen confirmed that he would no longer play for England last Tuesday after the South Africa-born batsman was left out of the England squads for the tour of the Caribbean and the ICC World Twenty20.
At the time, the ECB would only cite the need for a new “team ethic and philosophy” in the wake of the 5-0 Test series defeat in Australia.
However, following calls for an explanation from players including former England captains Ian Botham and Michael Vaughan, the ECB issued a joint statement with the Professional Cricketers’ Association.
“The ECB recognises the significant contribution Kevin has made to England teams over the last decade,” the statement read.
“He has played some of the finest innings ever produced by an England batsman. However, the England team needs to rebuild after the whitewash in Australia.
“To do that we must invest in our captain Alastair Cook and we must support him in creating a culture in which we can be confident he will have the full support of all players, with everyone pulling in the same direction and able to trust each other.
“It is for those reasons that we have decided to move on without Kevin Pietersen.”
Pietersen, 33, bowed out as England’s record scorer across all formats of the game, with 13,797 runs to his name.
However, his strong personality made him a divisive presence in the England changing room.
He fell out with two head coaches in Peter Moores and Andy Flower and was also briefly dropped in 2012 after it emerged that he had sent text messages criticising then England captain Andrew Strauss to South African players.
The ECB went on to address accusations emanating from social media that Pietersen had been forced out of the England squad by figures from within the camp.
“Allegations have been made, some from people outside cricket, which as well as attacking the rationale of the ECB’s decision-making, have questioned, without justification, the integrity of the (former) England team director (Flower) and some of England’s players,” the statement added.
“It is important to stress that Andy Flower, Alastair Cook and (wicketkeeper) Matt Prior, who have all been singled out for uninformed and unwarranted criticism, retain the total confidence and respect of all the other members of the Ashes party.
“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 2012.”
Speaking before the ECB explained its reasons for deciding to jettison Pietersen, Strauss had expressed a belief that trust was the critical issue.
“Without trust, the team environment is stillborn. It is for this reason that Kevin Pietersen’s international career had to be brought to an end,” Strauss wrote in British newspaper the Sunday Times.
“The media have been searching for a ‘smoking gun’. Everyone is looking for disciplinary problems, bust-ups and character clashes, but they are looking for the wrong thing.
“The smoking gun is the total absence of trust.”
Bayman
Guest
Well, Annie, it looks like it's true what they say, "Too many cooks spoil the broth". In this case, it looks like one cook was one too many! On the question of KP loyalty, or lack of, it seems that he has certainly been critical of his captain. The last Captain Cook got himself killed in the Sandwich Islands, this most recent version apparently got roasted. Team unity is a strange and wonderful thing. If everyone complains about the captain, then the captain gets replaced. If just one person complains then it's just that person who gets the flick. Sometimes it's just a simple matter of who, and how many, have the balls to step forward and speak. Pietersen, of course, may be quite right in his assessment. He also may be wrong. Having seen Cook in action, as captain, in the two most recent Ashes series my gut feeling is that Pietersen was absolutely right. Cook is a terrible captain. At least he is based on his performance in the last two series. I'm not even considering his batting which, though below his own normal high standard, is not considered, at least by me, in his assessment as an on-field leader. He looked completely bereft of any meaningful ideas - even during the first series in which his team won 3-0. In Australia he simply looked shell-shocked. I'm not sure five on the boundary is an answer to anything but it's all he really was able to come up with in the heat of battle in both series. One might agree that having Pietersen in the team, now, would be a massive distraction and complication. That does not, however, mean that Pietersen is wrong.
jameswm
Guest
Great rant
Annie Weatherly-Barton
Guest
Cook showed himself to be utterly pathetic as a captain and should have been sacked after his failures on tour and the way he mishandled the situation. ALL the team failed in playing well. The England team didn't turn up. Whereas the Aussies came out all guns ablazing! The Aussies played brilliantly. The question that the ECB is constantly ignoring is: Why was it that one of the best teams in the world didn't turn up and just couldn't play? Cook acted like a spoilt brat running every five minutes to Flower to either grass on his own players or tell Flower that he couldn't cope with Pietersen. We have been told by players that conversations that happen in the dressing room are sacrosanct! So why did Cook and Prior run off to tell Flower what had been said about him straight after the meeting? Cook is and will always be considered by the real England Cricket fans as an utter failure as Captain. He needed to man up and didn't. The whole management has been seen as utter and complete failures. The idea put forward by Strauss is ludicrous - Cook didn't have the support of Pietersen. What a pathetic thing to say in the first place. Now Strauss has made Cook look even more ridiculous than he did in the first place. As if that was indeed possible! Pietersen, according to Broad was giving batting help to Anderson and Broad and others. According to Swann, Pietersen was fine and just getting on with everyone. Clearly Morgan was not happy by how KP had been treated as he is now on record calling Prior "a liar" whilst also accusing Prior of "stabbing KP in the back!" If this was just about KP, why was it that Cook and Prior set up this "secret" meeting to discuss the failure of Flower's management technique. If that doesn't clearly display Cook treachery I don't know what does. Utterly disgraceful. Even if Cook is so hapless in managing his players clearly Broad isn't and he asked for Pietersen to be in his team! He didn't have any problems with wanting one of the best players in the world. The Old Farts Club, aka ECB, Cook, Gooch, Flower ( who is still in the England set up) and the rest should all resign. This fiasco was brought about by them. They should take responsibility for their own failure and fall on their swords. The ECB and the rest have left English Cricket the laughing stock of the world. Time to sack the lot and bring in Vaughan, Collingwood, Botham, Flintoff, and even Brierley to sort out this mess of ECB pottage!
Straight Ball
Guest
Thanks for that, Ryan. I didn't hear that before. Made me laugh out loud. Chappell I. still has it, big time.
kathleen lopes
Guest
It is my earnest hope and prayer that the English cricket team and the Ennglish Cricket Board come to rue their decision. In addition I continue to hope and pray that Cook's field decisions continue to be poor to bad and that his batting goes from bad to worse to "dis-buggerable" - they all deserve to fall in the rankings and become a laughing stock once more. But Pietersen will hopefully and prayerfully earn heaps of money and accolades playing in the IPL the Big Bash and whatever other cricketing events may arise.
Jason Cave
Guest
My line of thinking was that Kevin Pietersen wants the England captaincy back after the Ashes and was disappointed that Alastair Cook kept the job, especially after Cook's awful batting display throughout the whole series. How Cook can keep the job despite a poor batting display and bad captaincy still amazes me really. Cook's performance as captain this Ashes series here in Australia reminded me of former New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe. In 1987-88 against Australia, Crowe had a shaky summer with the bat, lost the Trans-Tasman Test Series 1-0 (despite the fact he had some AAA+ players in his team, notably his brother Martin and a guy called Sir Richard Hadlee) and therefore lost his job and his place in the team on his return to NZ.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Great line by Ian Chappell "If Pietersen wasn't critical of Cook's captaincy, I'd be very disappointed"