England national selector Geoff Miller was decidedly unimpressed by Kevin Pietersen’s foul-mouthed Twitter rant following his omission from the limited overs squads to play Pakistan.
Pietersen pre-empted Tuesday’s official announcement by the England and Wales Cricket (ECB) that he’d been left out of the squads for the upcoming limited overs matches against Pakistan by several hours, with a post on social networking site Twitter.
That would not have endeared the South Africa born batsman to the England management in any event.
But the 30-year-old Pietersen, man of the tournament during England’s victorious World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean earlier this year, told his followers: “Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.
“It’s a fxxx up.”
Miller, speaking after Tuesday’s squad announcement, said: “I don’t like that kind of language and I don’t use that language at all.
“I don’t think it is necessary,” the former England off-spinner added.
“I’m still the national selector and what I do is select sides with my co-selectors that we think is right for England. My priority is the England side and it is not about individuals.”
Pietersen, who has gone 26 Test innings without a hundred, could now face disciplinary action with an ECB spokesman telling AFP: “We are considering the circumstances surrounding it (the Twitter post).”
Meanwhile Miller added: “I’ll talk to KP. Whether there is an apology or not I’m sure Andy Flower (the England coach) will have a word with him.”
Pietersen, never before dropped by England when fit, is now set to spend the rest of the season on-loan at Surrey from Hampshire in a bid to get some morale-boosting match practice.
Hampshire made it clear they would not select Pietersen this season after he announced he’d be leaving at the end of the current campaign.
“I’ll be watching games that he is participating in before the end of the season,” Miller said.
“This won’t stop me talking to Kevin Pietersen and if he wants to apologise or thinks there is a need to apologise then so be it, I will certainly explain to him what my feelings are.
“It is something I could do without.”
Pietersen was in more restrained mood when quoted in an ECB statement announcing the one-day parties, saying: “I have no issue with the selectors omitting me from the limited overs squads.”
England’s limited overs matches against Pakistan will take place under the cloud of ‘the spot-fixing’ row engulfing the tourists.
Britain’s News of the World has alleged a middleman took £150,000 ($230,000) to arrange for Pakistan’s Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif to deliberately bowl no-balls in the final Test against England at Lord’s last week.
The revelations led to calls for England’s two Twenty20 matches against Pakistan, in Cardiff, on Sunday and Tuesday, and a subsequent five-match one-day series between the countries to be scrapped.
But with the games set to go ahead as scheduled, Miller said: “We’ll just have to see how the atmosphere is, we can’t do anything else.
“It is a difficult time but we have to accept that these games are going to be played and these are the best players to face it.”
He added: “We will go out there and put a show on for the spectators. We hope there is a full crowd because we want to go out there as a national side and make them feel proud of us and proud to be English.”
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