Pietersen blames Flower for ‘choking’ England

LONDON, (Reuters) – There were many villains in the England dressing-room but none was bigger than coach Andy Flower, Kevin Pietersen said as he launched a fresh attack on the man he blames for master-minding a covert operation to get rid of him.

Forty-eight hours of Flower-bashing did not seem enough to satisfy Pietersen as even when he was asked about his so-called ‘back-stabbing’ team mates or the England and Wales Cricket Board’s desire to produce “choir boy” players, the 34-year-old turned the focus back to his nemesis-in-chief.

Asked if things turned sour with his team mates due to a clash of personalities or jealousy, Pietersen told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday: “We’ll leave the team mates out of this for now and we’ll just talk about the coach (Flower). “The coaching issue was a big issue. The coach didn’t like me. Coach wanted me out. At any opportunity that he got he would collect his notes and he’d eventually get me one day. It’s incredibly unfortunate that it ended the way it ended.” Pietersen accused wicketkeeper Matt Prior and bowlers Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and James Anderson of forming a clique which made life miserable for other members of the team due to their bullying tactics.

But South-African born Pietersen was adamant that it was Flower who “let that clique grow like a bad weed and choke our team”. “The team mates played a part in it because they were allowed to play a part in it. But a decent man manager, a decent coach would have sorted the situation out and none of this would ever have happened,” added Pietersen on the eve of the publication of his explosive biography – KP.

“If a great coach was in charge of England, none of this would have happened.”

Flower led England to the top of the world test rankings for a year from August 2011, master-minded three Ashes series victories and was coach when they won the World Twenty20 Cup in 2010.

Since making his England debut in a one-dayer in 2004, Pietersen’s on-pitch fireworks enabled him to amass 13,797 runs over 277 international matches to become England’s highest ever run scorer.

However, it is his inability to stop those sparks flying when he comes off the field that has made him persona non grata in the England set-up — with the axe falling on his career following the 5-0 humiliation in the last Ashes series.

“They want the characters, they want the personalities on the field, they want the headlines, they want the guys to perform and they will very happily accept all the big endorsements and the companies that will sponsor them,” Pietersen said.

“But goodness, anybody who dares say anything, other than strict regime line, you get in trouble. Unfortunately, you can’t have the two.

“You can’t have the maverick or the great player who does extraordinary things on the field and then have a choir boy off it. It just doesn’t work.”

Selection of quotes from Pietersen’s autobiography

 

ON THE ENGLAND AND WALES CRICKET BOARD (ECB)

– Money plays a part in my decisions, just as it has played a huge part in the ECB’s decisions. Like the decision to allow Allen Stanford to land his helicopter on the hallowed turf at Lord’s, bringing with him a box full of cash – $20 million in cash. I am straight up in it while the ECB are hypocritical.

– When we didn’t have success as a distraction, they needed a scapegoat. Preferably somebody big, boisterous and annoying. Somebody who left colourful footprints on the pristine white carpets.

– Textgate was different … on nothing but rumours I was convicted of the greatest betrayal since Judas.

 

ON PETER MOORES, WHO WAS SACKED AS ENGLAND COACH IN JANUARY 2009 ON THE SAME DAY PIETERSEN WAS FORCED TO RESIGN AS CAPTAIN

– Moores had inherited a great team from Duncan Fletcher, but it was clear from our performances that he was turning wine into water.

– Where Duncan had given us freedom, Moores was tapping on our heads like a woodpecker all day, every day.

 

ON HIS TEAM MATES MATT PRIOR, GRAEME SWANN,

STUART BROAD

– The dressing room slowly became the territory of those biggest mouths among the bowlers — and a wicketkeeper. They ran an exclusive club. If you were outside that clique, you were fair game for mocking, ridicule, bullying. That’s what those guys did.

– I’d spoken about the abuse on the field that Prior, Broad, Jimmy (Anderson) and Swann were giving the fielders. (Swann and Broad) argued that fielders should apologise to the bowlers if they’ve made a mistake. I just stood there and realised that it was the closest I’ve ever come to thinking I could willingly slap two guys on my own team.

– The way he (Prior) criticised people who’d made mistakes on the field to a playground or a workplace, this behaviour would be labelled as bullying. He does the managing upwards well. The schoolyard bully who is also teacher’s pet.

ON HIS SOUTH AFRICAN ROOTS

– Whatever passport I carry, I will always have South Africa in my heart. One big mistake was not respecting South Africa and what it stands for. When I scored my first hundred there, I should never, ever, have kissed the England badge on my helmet.

 

ON BEING MADE ENGLAND CAPTAIN IN 2008

– I was playing all forms of cricket, and playing them well. So I was elected. Or handed the poisoned chalice.

 

ON HIMSELF

 

– I don’t enjoy being ordinary.

– I think that me confronting mediocrity throughout my career has earned me this reputation of being destructive.