30 March,2009 02:40 PM IST | | The Sun
Fed up with star batsman Kevin Pietersen's tantrums during the ongoing tour of West Indies, England captain Andrew Strauss has asked his predecessor to keep quite and act professionally.
Pietersen had caused a stir in the England camp after he asked to fly home for 48 hours to be with his wife between the third and fourth Tests which the team management refused as players are allowed home only for family bereavements or if their wives are due to give birth.
"We are on a cricket tour and it would have set a bad precedent to allow a player to go home. Kevin understood that fully and he just got on with it," Strauss said.
"He's been very supportive and professional all tour. I've had a chat with Kevin about what he has said. It is dealt with from our point of view," he was quoted as saying by The Sun tabloid.
Strauss also advised his star batsman to be careful of his words after Pietersen said in a newspaper interview that he was so fed up with England's defeats and missing his wife that he was "at the end of my tether".
Sometimes what he says is put in big headlines so he must be conscious of the attention what he says does receive," Pietersen said.
Pietersen tested the team management's tolerance towards him when he walked off yesterday clutching his back having bowled just five balls in the fourth one-day international.
He had also raked up an unnecessary controversy by calling West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul "a selfish cricketer" infuriating hosts captain Chris Gayle who described it as an "unfair" slur.
