Kevin Pietersen book confirms players are 'mollycoddled and over-coached', says Bob Willis

Bob Willis says Kevin Pietersen’s revelations underline his belief England’s cricketers are ‘overly-mollycoddled, over-coached and can’t think for themselves’.

In Pietersen’s autobiography – which is released on Thursday – the batsman slams a number of former team-mates with accusations of bullying and criticises the culture cultivated by former director of cricket Andy Flower.

Graeme Swann moved quickly to brand the book ‘a work of fiction’ but Sky Cricket expert Wills told Sky Sports News HQ the issues raised must be addressed – and new ground rules must be established in the England dressing room.

Here’s Willis’ verdict on Pietersen – and a selection of his accusations.

The England dressing room

The book makes the England dressing room out to be some sort of kindergarten.

The book makes the England dressing room out to be some sort of kindergarten rather than a group of professionals representing their national side. It underlines something that I’ve thought for a long time: these players are over-molly-coddled, over-coached, have too much backroom staff, not able to think for themselves. Because of all this backroom influence they can’t think for themselves and these little cliques form as a result of that.

There have been cliques in the England side ever since Nasser Hussian and Duncan Fletcher were running the England team; there were people who Fletcher liked and people who he didn’t like. The people he liked rallied around him and the captain and the others, perhaps the likes of Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff were in another camp. That does happen in dressing rooms. But if we’re to believe what Pietersen is telling us and what the ECB is telling us, there are little dictators all over the camp, which cannot be a good thing.

Pietersen’s falling-out with Andy Flower

Kevin has found it impossible to get on with a succession of England coaches – he didn’t get on with Peter Moores, which caused his resignation, now he can’t get on with Andy Flower, one of the most phlegmatic and easy-going people I’ve ever come across.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Andy Flower had his philosophy, he had two captains, Andrew Strauss and then Alastair Cook, who are very disciplined, highly intelligent human beings who ploughed a furrow that Flower wanted them to follow. More individual people don’t like everybody doing the same thing and that’s where Kevin falls out with people. He’s a very talented cricketer and he’s been very helpful to other younger players in the team over the years but he doesn’t like towing the party line.

Fielders having to apologise to bowlers

I don’t think it’s ideal that players who are fielding their guts out for their country are put under more pressure when they make a mistake. The best thing to do when a player makes a mistake in the field – drops a catch or misfields – is for everybody to forget about it straight away, not bring it up at the next drinks break, or the next interval and go down on your knees and apologise to James Anderson because you’ve dropped a slip catch. We’re going back to the school yard here.

Pietersen’s criticism of Matt Prior

I think of all the revelations, this is probably the most astounding. Prior was labelled as the peace maker and the beginning of Pietersen’s re-integration into the team after the text-gate affair during the South Africa series. You can see how Strauss and Pietersen would have irretrievably fallen out about that