In The Pink podcast, Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann spoke about his dislike for his teammate Kevin Pietersen. Teammates for the England national team, Graeme Swann and Kevin Pietersen ‘openly disliked each other’. However, both the players made sure that they keep personal issues aside and help their team perform better.
Swann and Pietersen played crucial roles for the hugely successful English side helping England win the Ashes series both home, away and claim the no 1 spot in test cricket.
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“We are a team that got to number one in the world, and in a team, there are always going to be individuals. Ninety-nine percent of that side were all in it for the team,” the former off-spinner Swann said in a podcast.
Pieterson was one of the most sucessful player for the English national team. The South Africa-born player amassed 8181 runs in Tests and 4440 ODIs for England. HE also had the oportunity to captain the English team for a short time in 2008. The player however, had to step down after a fallout with previous head coach Peter Moores
Swann, revealed why that he Pietersen in the team for his batting prowess despite his differences. Swann also spoke on Pietersen’s lack of respect for authority.
“With Kevin Pietersen, we had a situation where he had been captain before and didn’t much like establishment and rules,” he said.
“We were actually very similar in that way, and we actually got on me and KP professionally better than most people because of we very honest with but openly disliked each other. But wanted each other in the team. I wanted a KP in the team because he was scoring a lot of runs and playing really well, and simply he was one of the best batsmen in the world,” he added.
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Kevin Pietersen was axed from England’s national side setup after their Ashes defeat to Australia in 2013-14. He sent dishonorable text messages to South Africa players bad mouthing skipper Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower way back in 2012.
“There were times when it was all exterior things like the texting against Andrew Strauss. When you get to the point when you’re having these team meetings and discussing what you’re going to do about these text messages but the player is saying ‘I didn’t send them’… And then subsequently he says he did but only because they’re my mates, that certainly didn’t help things,” Swann mentioned.
