Kevin Pietersen autobiography: ECB dinosaurs have shot themselves in the foot, says KP

The man who was once the England team’s most illustrious player has again outflanked those who dispensed with him

Kevin Pietersen speaking on The Clare Balding Show (The Clare Balding Show/BT Sport)

Kevin Pietersen has dashed unopposed to the moral high ground in his increasingly one-sided battle with the England cricket team. In a television interview, he ridiculed his former employers as dinosaurs.

He was speaking on The Clare Balding Show, which will be broadcast on Thursday night on BT Sport, and his comments made his former employers seem both rudderless and out of touch. Pietersen, who has spent the week promoting his incendiary autobiography, KP, was asked to comment on the dossier leaked on Tuesday, which detailed his misdeeds on the Australian tour last winter which culminated in his sacking.

“I think there are times in your life where you shoot yourselves in the foot and I don’t think the ECB helped themselves last night,” he said. “It’s embarrassing what happened last night, it’s not something I really want to give much airtime to. When you’re dealing with dinosaurs that don’t understand social media they are going to shoot themselves in the foot and they’ve done it.”

It was the latest minor victory for Pietersen in his skirmish with the England and Wales Cricket Board. At every turn this week, the man who was once the national team’s most illustrious player has outflanked those who dispensed with him.

The ECB continues to decline to address Pietersen’s accusations that the England dressing room was ruled by fear and bullying. He continues diligently to promote his book, which will at last be in the shops today.

One of Pietersen’s purported misdeeds in the document which emanated from the ECB’s lawyers, Onside Law, was that he went out drinking with young members of the squad in Adelaide before the second Test last December.

“We went out, we had a few drinks,” he said. “I was pictured on the front of a newspaper and in all the newspapers was Stuart Broad, so where the young players scenario came in I have not got a clue, I know there were some players with us. The embarrassing part of it was that the ECB put a press release out the next day. This was on a Sunday night, the Test match started on a Thursday.

Then he supplied the hammer blow which brooked no argument. The ECB and its lawyers should have known what sort of professional cricketer they were dealing with. Pietersen told Balding: “I pride myself on my training, I would never ever go out and get hammered or drink before I train, because training has given me my success. I’m not a big drinker anyway, occasionally I’ll go out and socialise. The ECB put a press release out, squashed it, and then 12 months later we find it on a website, strictly private and confidential information leaked against me. It’s just sad, the whole thing.”

But he appeared to concede what provoked the clear schism in the dressing room, which never truly disappeared after his supposed reintegration – the Indian Premier League. He said: “I was never popular with the clique in the dressing room, since the IPL.” It might have been all about money on every side all along.

Kevin Pietersen was speaking ahead of his appearance on 'The Clare Balding Show', to see the full interview watch BT Sport 1 from 8pm on Thursday 9th October