Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has named India among the teams that could confirm the “horrendous and highly disturbing” culture of bullying within the English cricket outfit.
Pietersen blamed former coach Andy Flower for “ruling by fear” and attacked vice-captain Matt Prior for allegedly orchestrating a campaign against him.
“I could give you telephone numbers of international players around the world. You ring them and ask them about the way the England team conducted themselves through the last three, four years. Listen to them.
“Ask the Sri Lankans, ask the Australians. Ask the West Indians, ask the Indians. I got messages from Indians and stuff when they played against them saying ‘I can’t believe you could play with these guys’,” Pietersen was quoted as saying by Daily Telegraph ahead of the release of his autobiography titled KP.
Foremost among a series of accusations and grievances is the claim that a culture of bullying took hold — led, allegedly, by Prior and the bowlers who enjoyed so much success during England’s rise to No. 1 Test team.
“Horrendous. Hugely disturbing. I brought it up on numerous occasions,” he said.
Forcing to apologise Specifically Pietersen cited the example of fielders being forced to apologise to bowlers if they dropped a catch or made an error, and Prior yelling aggressively at teammates.
He also feels his open support for the Indian Premier League (IPL) resulted in a lot of backlash against him.
“When the IPL came round and I spoke so positively about the IPL. And I constantly said all the players should be playing in the IPL. If we want to get better we should be playing in the IPL. I’ve been saying it for six years,” he said.
“I was sitting in my house the other day watching the one-day series against India, when they were hammering England, and Nick Knight and the commentators were saying, ‘I just wish the England players were playing more IPL, this would be so much more of a contest’, and I just started laughing.
“I said to Jess (his wife), ‘What have I been saying for seven years? What have I been saying for seven years’,” he added.
Despite being England’s all-time leading run-scorer across all formats, the South Africa-born batsman was sensationally axed after the team’s 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia in 2013/14.
The England and Wales Cricket Board then gave several convoluted explanations as to why its former captain had been discarded, citing the need to “support” current skipper Alastair Cook as a central reason.
In an interview with Monday’s edition of the Daily Telegraph , to promote an autobiography due to be published on Thursday, Pietersen said he still did not understand why he was effectively sacked.
“Why was I sacked? I’d love to know,” he said.
Pietersen, 34, added he’d been shocked by the way senior bowlers Graeme Swann (now retired), Stuart Broad and James Anderson as well as currently injured wicketkeeper Matt Prior abused fielders for dropping catches.
Prior vows to respond England wicketkeeper Matt Prior on Monday pledged to respond to former international team-mate Kevin Pietersen’s claims that he was “back-stabbing” and a “bad influence” on the team.
