Prior demotion proves I’m right, insists Pietersen
MAVERICK Kevin Pietersen believes the decision of cricket chiefs to ditch Matt Prior from a central contract substantiates his accusations the wicketkeeper was a disruptive influence within the England dressing room.
Pietersen’s explosive new book KP: The Autobiography is the architect of the storm engulfing English cricket, with plenty of mud slung in the direction of Prior, who no longer holds a central deal for the forthcoming year.
Prior was dropped for the final two Tests of the disastrous Ashes tour in the winter where England were whitewashed by the Australians before earning a recall this summer but ultimately stepping down in order to have Achilles surgery.
While the 32-year-old has designs on regaining his England place behind the stumps despite being usurped by Lancashire’s Jos Buttler, Pietersen believes Prior’s behaviour after being dumped Down Under helps validate his point.
“I don’t think I can have been that wrong because he doesn’t have a central contract any more – England are finished with him,” said Pietersen.
“I was the one who was made out to be this big brash person. Then I looked at the double standards of the way he conducted himself in the dressing room and talked to Andy Flower about things. When he got dropped he was an embarrassment in Australia.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, meanwhile, last night derided on Twitter an England and Wales Cricket Board document purporting to explain reasons for Pietersen’s England sacking in February by detailing his alleged uninterested and rebellious behaviour as “bollocks”.