The former England captain Alec Stewart has said Kevin Pietersen is “entitled to feel let down a little bit” by Andrew Strauss’s confirmation that there will be no England recall for the Surrey batsman in the immediate future.
Strauss used his opening media conference in his new role of director, England cricket to say that Pietersen is “not part of our plans”. Pietersen had reiterated his desire for an England return after scoring a career-best triple-hundred for Surrey against Leicestershire on Monday.
Stewart, however, also stressed that Strauss should be given time to make his own mark in the role. “It’s very, very important that Andrew Strauss makes his own decisions,” Stewart, now Surrey’s director of cricket, told BBC Radio Surrey. “He’s been put in charge of England’s fortunes over the next four or five years so he’s got to be comfortable with that decision.
“I do think he may have contradicted himself a little bit, in saying on one hand he won’t be playing at all this summer, effectively finishing his England career, but then offering Kevin an advisory role in one-day cricket. I’m not sure how those two marry up, but again Andrew has to be comfortable with that.
“And again with ‘trust’ I think Kevin is entitled to feel let down a little bit by the ECB following the comments of the incoming chairman Colin Graves when he said six or seven weeks or so ago the slate had been wiped clean, to find himself a county, score runs and he’d be considered, or words to that effect, which Kevin has done – he’s had two phone conversations with the incoming chairman, so it wasn’t a misinterpretation.”
Stewart, who played 133 Tests and 170 one-day internationals for England between 1990 and 2003, also felt the England hierarchy could have presented their plans more positively.
“I just felt perhaps it could be done differently by saying: ‘At the moment the middle order is playing exceptionally well, we’re backing these guys, the [Gary] Ballances, the [Joe] Roots, the [Ian] Bells, etc, but while you are still playing for Surrey while still scoring runs, you are staking a great claim.
“This way I think they’ve just gone bang, you’re definitely not playing, nothing has changed, the ECB don’t trust you. I’d like to know who – it’s a question I’d have asked at the press conference, who at the ECB doesn’t trust him because from when that decision was made 14, 15, 16 months ago, there is now a new chairman [Graves], new chief exec [Tom Harrison], director of cricket and there now will be a new coach, so which individual or individuals don’t trust him?”
