Kevin Pietersen's absence from the player management group for the Test leg of England's tour of the West Indies should not be seen as a fresh 'demotion', according to his replacement as captain Andrew Strauss. A fortnight ago Pietersen's protracted falling out with coach Peter Moores ended with him being forced to resign the captaincy while former Sussex chief Moores lost his job completely.
England, who were due to fly to St Kitts on Wednesday, have revived the system of player management groups that senior squad members became used to when Duncan Fletcher, Moores's immediate predecessor, was their coach.
For the first-half of the tour, whose centrepiece is a four-Test series starting in Jamaica on February 4, experienced all-rounders Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff, together with rising stars Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad, will form the player management group.
Pietersen wil replace Essex opener Cook, who is not in the limited overs squad, for the lone Twenty20 and five match one-day series which follow on from the Test campaign. Strauss said he believed the player management groups would fulfil a useful function. "The reality is that I thought that this was something that functioned very well under Duncan Fletcher," Strauss said.