After South Africa-born batsman Kevin Pietersen quit after just three Tests in charge, saying he couldn’t work alongside former coach Peter Moores, he said he was effectively dumped in a phone call and that he would one day lead the national team again.
He also said his relationship with Andrew Flintoff had not broken down, adding that the star all-rounder had wanted him to remain at the helm of the team.
“I feel I’ve got unfinished business as captain of England — I definitely feel that,” the 28-year-old told the News of the World in an interview. “But right now, I feel it is right for me to go back and just play — to do something that I love, which is scoring runs for England.”
Pietersen said he was about to return from holiday to talk with ECB chiefs David Collier and Hugh Morris when he received a call saying he was losing the captaincy.
After several earlier meetings with Morris and Collier, he said he then sent an e-mail in which “I said that I can’t lead this team forward and take it to the West Indies if Peter Moores is coach.”
He said he was stunned when Morris called to tell him his fate.
“He said they had had an emergency board meeting and they had accepted my resignation. I said, ‘Excuse me?’ They said: ‘We’ve accepted your resignation.’ I said, ‘On what basis has it been accepted?’ They had no answer.” he said.
ECB vice-chairman Dennis Amiss told BBC radio that once it became known that Pietersen and Moores were at loggerheads the situation “was always going to be impossible to resolve amicably.”
■AUSTRALIA v S AFRICA
STAFF WRITER
In the first Twenty20 international in Melbourne, Australia, debutant David Warner hit 89 off 43 balls as Australia 182-9 defeated South Africa 130 by 52 runs.
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