File image of Kevin Pietersen
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has indirectly told Michael Vaughan not to spread negativity in such times of crisis when the entire world is fighting against COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, Vaughan revealed that many England players were jealous of Pietersen's "massive" contract with the Indian Premier League (IPL) he bagged in 2009.
"Staggering! Still getting headlines, these stories! Can I humbly request that this isn't spoken about again! We've all moved on and there's many more wonderful things to talk about in my career!" Pietersen tweeted on Thursday.
"We live in a broken world right now, where positivity is needed!" he added.
In 2009, Royal Challengers Bangalore had bought Pietersen for $1,550,000, which made him the highest-paid IPL player along with Andrew Flintoff at that time.
"I think there was a lot of jealousy," Vaughan said in an interview with foxsports.com.au. "And the players will completely deny it now but I think there was at the time when Kevin was on a massive contract."
The 45-year-old further said that while Pietersen was off the view that playing in the IPL would further the development of the one-day team, England players felt he was going after money.
During the course of the interview, Vaughan also said that Pietersen should have never played for England again after the infamous Text-gate scandal in 2012.
Pietersen, who was born and brought up in South Africa, was accused of sending texts to South Africans during a Test series between the two teams against his captain Andrew Strauss and a few of his teammates.
