Smith says 'Proteas leaking KP's texts' claim by Atherton is 'biggest load of rubbish'

Johannesburg, Aug 16 : South Africa captain Graeme Smith has criticised former England skipper Michael Atherton for claiming that the Proteas deliberately leaked Kevin Pietersen’s provocative text messages, and described it as ‘the biggest load of rubbish’ he has ever heard.

England will go into Thursday''s third Test at Lord''s without Pietersen after he was dropped last weekend, despite scoring 149 in the drawn second Test in Leeds, for failing to reveal the contents of those text messages.

Pietersen apologised on Wednesday for the "provocative" texts, but it was too late to win back his place in the team for a match starting on Thursday where the tourists only need to avoid defeat to replace England as the world''s No. 1 Test side.

Smith, who has had plenty of run-ins with Pietersen in the past, insisted his team had not initiated the row.

“For us to be dragged into this has been disappointing. I heard (former England captain) Mike Atherton wrote a column about it saying we did it on purpose. That''s the biggest load of rubbish I have heard - I can''t believe it has got to that point,” Sports24 quoted Smith, as saying.

“I think the notion that we have tried to ''nail'' Kevin or put things out in the media is just ridiculous,” he added.

South Africa''s management has described the texts as ‘banter’ and Smith was at a loss to understand how the issue had escalated to the stage of England dropping Pietersen.

“I have personally seen nothing (damaging in the texts. I find it quite amazing that it''s still going on and that it has reached this point. In our dressing room, it''s something that''s hardly been discussed - except the amount of time and coverage that it''s getting,” Smith said.

“But obviously Kevin feels that he''s done something wrong and he has apologised for that. From our perspective it''s just been so overboard really. I can''t believe it''s still carrying on,” he added.