"For the vast majority of my time captaining KP, he was excellent" - Andrew Strauss 

Former England captain Andrew Strauss has stated that he enjoyed a good working relationship with Kevin Pietersen for the majority of his career. According to Strauss, it was only towards the end of KP’s term with England that things soured.

Pietersen was dropped from the England team after he sent text messages to South African players about his teammates during the 2012 Test series. Andrew Strauss was the captain of the side at the time but was axed permanently after England’s 0-5 drubbing in the 2013-14 Ashes.

In the ‘Headstrong’ podcast, Andrew Strauss reflected on the controversy surrounding Pietersen. He asserted that he did not have any problems playing with the maverick cricketer for most of his career. The former captain said:

“For the vast majority of my time captaining KP, he was excellent. Bear in mind, he was removed as England captain and he had run-ins with the ECB and all that stuff. For the most part, he was fine, we got on well. There was a time at the end there where I felt his agenda and the agenda of the team were not aligned."

Andrew Strauss added:

"He was trying to do something that was right for him and that was actually detrimental to the team. That was a big issue to me and that’s kind of the background to how everything went wrong in the end.”

Admitting that he could perhaps have done a couple of differently in hindsight, Strauss added that Pietersen’s role in the entire issue cannot be overlooked. He explained:

“It is always right to ask ourselves the question - could we have managed it differently? Could we have done it better? I definitely feel I could have done a couple of things differently. I definitely would never absolve KP from his share of the blame in everything that went on there. When I look back at it, the vast majority of the time I played cricket with KP was a really happy phase."

Andrew Strauss added:

"He did brilliantly for England. He is a fantastic player, probably the best I ever played with. England got a lot of benefit from it and he got a lot of benefit from it. It was just when the alignment wasn’t there that the issues started coming in.”

🎧 PODCAST 🎧“I probably didn't do enough work with KP. In retrospect, that was a mistake & might have sowed the seeds for what was to come"Sir Andrew Strauss on Kevin Pietersen 👉 https://t.co/ZzQjpJtBVJ🔊 iTunes: https://t.co/e3VkHkiowB🔊 Spotify: https://t.co/1QvBKzwisl pic.twitter.com/lORTFYF1pr

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) April 4, 2020

Players get energized by being in different environments: Andrew Strauss on franchise leagues

When the IPL and other franchise leagues came into existence, the ECB was not too keen on sending their players to these tournaments due to fears about players burning out.

The cricket board was also worried that playing too much T20 cricket would affect the team's fortunes in red-ball cricket. Things, however, changed when Andrew Strauss came into the setup as the director of cricket. Sharing his views on franchise cricket, Andrew Strauss stated:

“I came in as the director of cricket with the agenda to win the 2019 World Cup. I knew our players needed to play franchise cricket to overcome that slight inferiority complex we had with white-ball cricket. Also, we needed to put them in pressure situations, being the overseas players needing to perform with a lot of money riding on them. I thought that was a good way of replicating the pressure we get in the World Cup."

Andrew Strauss added:

"Players actually get energized by being in different environments. They come back a little bit more refreshed and ready to go. If you are playing international cricket all the time, it’s a treadmill, you’re on it 320 days a year. Perception towards franchise cricket has definitely changed."

"The best England player that I ever played with."Andrew Strauss says despite their differences its time to celebrate the "magnificent" Kevin Pietersen following his retirement. 😘🏏❤️ pic.twitter.com/90q4aj0LBO

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) March 21, 2018

Following an impressive run in the shorter formats, England won the World Cup at home in 2019. Jos Buttler, Eoin Morgan and Jofra Archer are some of the star players from England who feature in the IPL.