London, Sep 18: Former England captain Alec Stewart has said Kevin Pietersen’s expected exclusion from the squad for the India tour could have been avoided with some straight talk, and added that he is not sure whether dropping the South Africa born batsman would be fair or not.
Stewart said no one knows if Pietersen got a fair trial in the ongoing row over his text messages to the Proteas players, mocking his former captain Andrew Strauss and his parody Twitter account.
“That parody Twitter account was certainly unhealthy. Has that been investigated as much as KP''s texts? We don''t know the full facts, do we? We''re second guessing all the time,” the Independent quoted Stewart, as saying.
In terms of the Pietersen saga, there have been hints that it is simply a case of the bowlers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann being jealous of the batsman’s ever growing fame.
However, Stewart in a diplomatic way denied to go into the specifications, but needs no reminding of the repulsiveness engendered by former fast bowlers Darren Gough and Andy Caddick in the dressing room, who put aside their differences to become one of England''s finest new-ball duos.
Stewart said: “There’s always competition. You might call it jealousy. Dressing rooms are unique places. Gough and Caddick were chalk and cheese so you treated them differently. So long as players buy into what the team stands for, toe the team line, understand their role and what they can and can''t do, you can cut them more slack.”
© ANI
