Former England stars Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann are not the best of the friends and it is not a secret anymore. The two shared the dressing room together for one of England’s most successful teams. They were an integral part of the English team that won three Ashes including one in Australia and also rose to the pinnacle of the Test ranking.
However, things went downhill after Pietersen was sensationally axed by England following the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash. Midway through the same series, Graeme Swann had announced his retirement too. Few months later, Pietersen released a book in which he took shots at former England coach Andy Flower while also claiming that there was a bullying culture within the team.
Swann openly rejected the claims made by his former teammate and went on to brand the book “a work of fiction”. Earlier this year, Swann had sensationally called Pietersen a “d***head while speaking on the Rig Biz podcast when discussing the 2013-14 Ashes.
“There was a general undermining of the captain and trying to get the captain sacked and the coach sacked and generally being a bit of a k**b, bit of a d***head, but we didn’t all know. We just thought Kev’s Kev but he was being quite nasty behind the scenes and using his friends in the press, it was messy,” Swann had said.
Graeme Swann takes a dig at Kevin Pietersen:
And ahead of the upcoming Ashes, Graeme Swann could not help but take a dig at Pietersen again while speaking about former coach Andy Flower. The former England coach has joined Australia’s coaching staff ahead of the five-match series, scheduled to get underway later this month. In a swipe at Pietersen, Swann said that only “dishonest players” did not like his approach when Flower was England coach.
“I don’t think England should have let it happen. They should have said ‘we’ll pay you what they are to come back and work with us.’
“You can’t stop a man doing it but England shouldn’t allow Australia to have any little advantage. Good on Andy, though. He was an absolute joy as England coach and I look forward to working with him again for Trent Rockets this summer. He was so blunt and up front with England and I loved that.
“Honest players thrive on that sort of coach and it was only the dishonest players we had who didn’t like his approach so much,” said Swann, who works alongside Flower as a coach at Hundred franchise Trent Rockets.
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