Dave Middleton
Axed batsman hits out at claims of trust and claims England have been 'given permission to lose' Ashes
A "hurt and angry" Kevin Pietersen has lashed out at the "incredibly deceitful" treatment he says was meted out to him by Andrew Strauss, the former teammate and England and Wales Cricket Board's new director of cricket.
Pietersen, writing in the UK's Telegraph newspaper, hit back at Strauss's claims of trust issues, confirmed he turned down an offer of advising the one-day team and will return to his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad to play alongside David Warner this weekend.
"I just find it incredibly deceitful what has happened to me and am frankly finding it difficult to understand right now," Pietersen wrote in a piece headlined My fury at England deceit.
"I have done everything I have been asked. I keep asking myself, what more could I do?
Pietersen said he was wary the meeting would be to tell him his England career was over when first invited by the ECB's CEO Tom Harrison. He claimed he was given assurances that would not be the case.
"I went into the meeting expecting Strauss to say that England’s batting order is good at the moment but if I continued to score runs and if an injury occurred then I would be in contention to play.
"I would naturally have to earn my recall, but at least I would be eligible. But no. Quite simply, I feel deeply misled."
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That news of Strauss's message was on the back pages and plastered across social media shortly after the meeting was more fuel to fire Pietersen's ire.
"They have used the word trust to justify not selecting me, well, trust is a two-way thing," Pietersen added.
"I couldn’t believe just half an hour after I had my meeting, the result of it was on the internet and on the BBC airwaves. Now I certainly didn’t tell anybody, so who did?
"They say they don’t trust me but how can anybody trust them?"
Strauss's revelation that he had on the one hand shot down Pietersen's hopes of an England recall, then on the other offered him an advisory role with the England one-day team caused bewilderment amongst observers on Tuesday night.
It was a theme Pietersen was quick to seize upon.
"It is true that after telling me I did not have a future for England, Strauss offered me the chance to sit on his advisory panel. But I told him to forget it," Pietersen wrote.
"How can he in one sentence say we cannot trust you and then in the next try and say we want you to be on a board because you have such a wonderful cricket brain?
"At that point I asked: 'Who doesn’t trust me? You have a new chairman, a new CEO, we have spent the last 10 minutes sorting out our differences like adults. Let’s go through the batting order.'
I rattled off names. He could not give me any names. He said it is a broader thing and not just the players."
Pietersen also slammed England's approach to the forthcoming Ashes series, claiming Strauss had been given job security that "results do not matter this summer".
"But if Strauss has been told he does not have to win this summer then why should the players train and work hard?
"In essence, quite incredibly, they have all been given permission to lose the Ashes.
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"I have never heard that before. It is not in my make-up and I know it is not in the make-up of the English public either. Especially for those who have paid a lot of money for tickets.
"It is an absolute disgrace if that is their mindset. Is this the reason Strauss got that job, because he would accept those conditions? Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart certainly would not."
Pietersen said he would fly to India on Friday – Sunrisers play Royal Challengers Bangalore that day and their final pool stage game is on Sunday against the Mumbai Indians.
"It’ll give me a good opportunity to cool down and assess what I'm going to do next," wrote Pietersen. "I'm just sorry it won’t be putting on an England shirt."
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