Strauss called back as England captain

CRICKET:IT WAS a bit of a scrum, but at Lord's yesterday Andrew Strauss was formally introduced as the new England Test captain.

Immediately he announced he had received assurances of support from outgoing captain Kevin Pietersen, and would be having further talks with him and other key figures in the side to begin re-establishing unity to a dressingroom that appears to have fragmented in the wake of Pietersen's disaffection with the coach Peter Moores who, along with Pietersen, lost his job on Wednesday.

Strauss has inherited the position in unfortunate circumstances, just a fortnight before the team leave for the Caribbean and following Wednesday's resignation of his predecessor, who arrived back in Britain yesterday morning from his South African holiday.

It will leave him little time to begin the process of attempting to mend broken fences.

"Clearly from the point of view of the players and some of the management we need to chat and get sorted out," said Strauss, who believes that reports of dressing-room rifts have been exaggerated.

"But I've said before we are about playing and winning cricket matches and I'm sure that will unite us. I have some conversations I need to have with some of the players and will happily do that over the coming days."

Top of his agenda has to be ensuring that Pietersen is onside, and Strauss revealed he had already had several talks with Pietersen, and had been offered full backing. "KP has been very supportive of me so far," he said. "It's a tough situation for him and I'm sure he has his own side of the story. I believe he did what was in the best interests of the England team and I have no problems with him as a player.

"It's vital we get the best out of Pietersen and I believe I can work with him very closely. I would like to thank him for his efforts as England captain. He is one of the greatest players in the world and I am delighted that he has confirmed that he is available to play in all our forthcoming fixtures."

Significantly, Strauss was introduced by Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, as the new Test captain, although that may be for the moment only.

While Pietersen fulfilled all the roles, there remain vacancies for leadership of the one-day side and for Twenty20 as well, and Strauss admitted that in that regard things were "in a state of flux".

And England may face a fresh crisis if they appoint Andy Flower as interim coach on the West Indies tour. It emerged yesterday that Flower, who is tipped to be the temporary replacement for the sacked Moores, was one of the backroom staff Pietersen wanted England to get rid of.

A senior official on the England and Wales Cricket Board, said: "Pietersen wanted half of them out and certainly Andy Flower. I don't know what he was hoping to achieve, but I've never encountered an ego quite like it in cricket. He wanted to run the show."

Flower did not expect to be named as interim coach under Pietersen for the trip. But all he would say last night was: "I had heard something about this but not enough to make a comment. I have always had a good relationship with KP, but we have not spoken in the past few days."

A spokesman for Pietersen refused to deny the story.

"Pass," he said.

Guardian Service