Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was adamant Friday that he made no promises to Kevin Pietersen about a possible return to Test cricket. Graves, whose tenure as ECB chairman started Friday, released a statement via the governing body's website in his first public response to claims from Pietersen that he had received "incredibly deceitful" treatment.
Andrew Strauss, the new ECB director of cricket and Pietersen's successor as England captain, said Tuesday that a "massive trust issue" prevented the South Africa-born batsman's return, even though Pietersen is England's all-time leading run-scorer across all formats. That appeared to contradict earlier comments from Graves that a return was possible if Pietersen, in international exile since the team's 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia last year, scored enough runs in county cricket.
But shortly after Pietersen made an unbeaten triple century for Surrey against Leicestershire on Monday, Strauss told him to forget about playing for England against New Zealand and Australia this home season. That in turn led Pietersen to say he'd been "misled", with the 34-year-old going on to make an unbeaten 355 against Leicestershire. But former Yorkshire chairman Graves had a different take on events, saying Friday: "In the past few days my integrity has been called into question, something I can't accept.
"Throughout my business career and my years at Yorkshire, integrity has been my watchword. It governs everything I do and is an important part of what I bring to the ECB. "So it saddens me that what was a private conversation with Kevin in March has been used to do just that. "I didn't make any promises, There were no guarantees that if he chose to exit his IPL (Indian Premier League) contract, play county cricket and score runs he would be selected for England - and I said he should make any decision on his future on that basis."
However, Graves appeared to be defending himself from a charge Pietersen had not made, as the batsman hadn't said he'd been "promised" anything, but rather that if he did fulfil certain conditions he would at least be considered for England selection. Graves was prepared to accept there may have been a "misunderstanding". "Back then, when we talked on the phone, Kevin asked if I thought his England career had ended in the right manner following the last Ashes series in Australia," Graves wrote in his ECB blog.
"I agreed that nobody particularly emerged with much credit from the whole episode, particularly given his achievements for England. "I can see something has been misunderstood around the conversation and in the following debate - and perhaps how that happened." Strauss's decision to ditch Pietersen was followed by a report in the Daily Mirror that England captain Alastair Cook had threatened to quit international cricket if he came back into the side. Graves said he was happy to abide by Strauss's judgement.
He added the scars from Pietersen's incendiary autobiography, published in October last year and severely critical of many of his colleagues, were unlikely to heal quickly. "What I did stress was that when I took over as chairman I would back those people whose job it was to take the decisions on team selection," Graves said. "I stand by that. "Given the history and the book, the simple fact is that bridges have still not been rebuilt and trust needs to be restored." Pietersen is currently sidelined due to a calf injury sustained playing against Leicestershire that ruled him out of joining the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the IPL and so would, quite likely, have been unavailable for next week's first Test against New Zealand at Lord's.