Pietersen has 'unfinished business' as England captain
Pietersen says he still does not know why the ECB forced his resignation
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Sunday, 11, Jan 2009 09:05
Kevin Pietersen has said he has "unfinished business" as England captain having been forced to stand down following his public row with former coach Peter Moores.
Pietersen says he will back new skipper Andrew Strauss 100 per cent and just wants to concentrate on getting runs when he returns to the side, however, the 28-year-old says he has not given up of one day regaining the captaincy of his country.
The Hampshire batsman admitted to the News of the World that he had told the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he could not work with Moores but did not expect both of them to be stripped of their positions.
He told the newspaper: "I feel I've got unfinished business as the captain of England. But right now, I feel it is right for me to go back and just play — to do something that I totally, totally love, which is scoring runs and more runs for England."
Pietersen claims that the situation arose after the ECB asked him to prepare a strategy plan to take England forward and explain how he would win in the West Indies and then get the Ashes back this summer.
He did so but Pietersen says he came to the conclusion that the team could not achieve its desired goals with Moores as coach because he, as captain, had lost faith in him.
Pietersen told the News of the World: "In my email, I said that I can't lead this team forward and take it to the West Indies if Peter Moores is coach. I did say that, yes.
"I just wanted someone to be my ally who I trusted, who I knew was tactically aware.
"I didn't have that and those were my reasons for saying that I could not continue if Peter Moores was still the coach."
There have been reports that there was a slip among the players in the England dressing room, with some favouring Moores and others on Pietersen's side.
But Pietersen insists the players remain god friends and that the rumoured split in the camp does not exist.
Pietersen claims he spoke to Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison at the end of the tour of India and since Christmas and they told him on to quit as captain.
The former skipper said he also had the backing of senior players Paul Collingwood and as well as new captain Strauss.
Despite having a number of meetings with ECB chairman Giles Clarke, performance director Hugh Morris and chief executive David Collier and was due to have another with them on his return from holiday in South Africa.
Pietersen said he was shocked to then get a phone call the day before his return telling him the ECB had accepted his 'resignation'.
He says he has not been given an explanation for why he was asked to stand down but assumed it was because of what he wrote about Moores in the strategy plan and was therefore surprised to see that Moores had been sacked as well.
Pietersen added: "I haven't had any reasons for why I was asked to stand down — and I still haven't.
"I thought that one of us had to go, sure. And I would have had no problem if they had decided it was me and Moores stayed. I was surprised because after that phone call I thought Moores was still in the job, with them taking my resignation because of the strategy I had drawn up and my conclusion"
Pietersen says he has no regrets for how things turned out because it was his "duty as England captain" to "risk it all" if he felt things were not right.