‘I could give you telephone numbers of international players around the world. You ring them and ask how the England team have conducted themselves over the last three or four years. People would say to me, “I can't believe you could play with these guys?”
‘The bowlers were given so much power. They were doing really well but these guys ran the dressing room. The thing that horrified me most was when Strauss and Flower said before the one-day internationals in India, “Guys, we've got to stop this. It's not right for the team. People have come to us who are intimidated to field the ball.”
‘And the bowlers had the audacity to stand there and say, “No, if they **** up we deserve an apology”. It's the most angry I've ever got in the dressing room. I thought, “I reckon I could hit these guys.”
Pietersen stops short of hammering Alastair Cook, whom he calls ‘good at heart.' But he cannot resist attacking Prior. ‘Alastair Cook isn't the greatest speaker but his sidekick Matt Prior could talk the hind legs off a donkey. So Cook wanted Prior close to him. He wanted his vice-captain to do all his talking for him. So when I went after Prior I said he shouldn't be in the team, he's a bad influence, a negative influence, he picks on players.'
As expected, Pietersen attacks Flower even though England's most successful coach was the man who gave him one last chance after he betrayed Strauss.
‘I've been one of the only ones who constantly through his reign as coach did not say “How high” when he said “Jump”. He built a regime, he didn't build a team.
'I told him on numerous occasions, “You're playing by fear here, you want players to be scared of you. And Andy, I'm not scared of you”. And he hated it.
'He had it in for me since I tried to get rid of him as second in command. Andy Flower didn't like one of his soldiers to hammer him. He was the boss. He wanted me to fear him. I'll never fear you buddy.'
