Pietersen rips into former coach Flower

There were many villains in the England dressing-room but none was bigger than coach Andy Flower, Kevin Pietersen said as he launched a fresh attack on the man he blames for master-minding a covert operation to get rid of him.

Forty-eight hours of Flower-bashing did not seem enough to satisfy Pietersen as even when he was asked about his so-called ‘back-stabbing’ team mates or the England and Wales Cricket Board’s desire to produce “choir boy” players, the 34-year-old turned the focus back to his nemesis-in-chief.

Asked if things turned sour with his team mates due to a clash of personalities or jealousy, Pietersen said: “We’ll leave the team mates out of this for now and we’ll just talk about the coach (Flower).

“The coaching issue was a big issue. The coach didn’t like me. Coach wanted me out. At any opportunity that he got he would collect his notes and he’d eventually get me one day. It’s incredibly unfortunate that it ended the way it ended.”

Pietersen accused wicketkeeper Matt Prior and bowlers Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and James Anderson of forming a clique which made life miserable for other members of the team due to their bullying tactics.

But South-African born Pietersen was adamant that it was Flower who “let that clique grow like a bad weed and choke our team”.

“The team mates played a part in it because they were allowed to play a part in it. But a decent man manager, a decent coach would have sorted the situation out and none of this would ever have happened,” added Pietersen on the eve of the publication of his explosive biography.

“If a great coach was in charge of England, none of this would have happened.”

Flower led England to the top of the world test rankings for a year from August 2011, master-minded three Ashes series victories and was coach when they won the World Twenty20 in 2010.