Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has made a series of explosive claims in an interview with The Daily Telegraph ahead of the release of his autobiography.
The extremely gifted but controversial batsman alleges there was a culture of bullying inside the England team orchestrated by the bowling attack and wicket-keeper Matt Prior, and that hugely successful former coach Andy Flower “ruled by fear”.
And Pietersen says he is still mystified as to why he was told his England career was at an end after the 5-0 Ashes defeat in Australia last winter.
“Why was I sacked? I’d love to know,” says Pietersen, who scored 23 centuries in 104 Tests for England.
“'Cricketing reasons. We’re not going to select you. Cricketing reasons.'
“They could hide behind that, because if they had tried to give any other reasons I would have sued them. I would have taken them to the cleaners.
“There are some days when I go, 'I should be playing cricket for England, why am I not playing cricket for England?'
“And then there’s most of the other days when I wake up and I go, 'Kevin, you came to England as a bowler, you played 104 Test matches, you’ve scored more runs than anyone who has ever played the game of cricket for England, you’ve got more man-of-the-matches for England than anyone’s ever got.
“Be happy, be proud'.”
Pietersen will address the matter in his book and added: “I’ve never had the opportunity to speak openly without binding contracts. So I needed to just get this all out there.
“There has been this incredible machine that’s worked against me. This tidal wave that’s worked against me.
Reply
“I needed an opportunity to say: 'This is my story. I just needed to have this as my right of reply, because I got sacked at the end of the day'.”
Regarding the intimidation of players allegedly led by Prior and the bowlers, Pietersen claims fielders were made to apologise to bowlers for errors and that the wicket-keeper would shout at team mates.
“Horrendous, hugely disturbing,” said Pietersen. “I brought it up on numerous occasions. I told (Andrew) Strauss about it, I told (Alastair) Cook about it.
“The bowlers were given so much power. Swanny (Graeme Swann) was winning game after game for us, Broady (Stuart Broad) was contributing, Jimmy (Anderson) was contributing. These guys ran the dressing-room.
“The double standard for me was the biggest thing. If one of them messed up – if Jimmy messed up, or Swanny messed up – nothing was ever said. Prior left them alone.”
But he added: “I saw Jimmy on finals day and I was absolutely fine with Jimmy. I’d be fine with Broad.
“It’s only Prior that I’d seriously have real issues with, because of how he was portrayed as a team man, the heart and soul of the dressing room, when he was getting up to the stuff he was getting up to.”
Pietersen was also critical of former head coach Flower.
“I’ve been one of the only ones who’ve constantly through his reign as coach not said 'how high?’ when he said 'jump’,” said Pietersen.
“He built a regime, he didn’t build a team. I’ve told him this before. I told him during his coaching reign.
“I told him on numerous occasions: 'You’re playing by fear here, you want guys to be scared of you. And Andy, I’m not scared of you'. And he hated it.
“He had it in for me since I tried to get rid of him as second in command. He collected stamps. It was stamp after stamp after stamp, until he thought: 'I can get rid of him now, let’s get rid of him'. ”