Gooch rubbishes Pietersen's allegations about Flower, Prior

London Former England captain Graham Gooch has rubbished Kevin Pietersens views in his controversial autobiography about former coach Andy Flower and wicketkeeperMatt Prior and also urged England players led by Alastair Cook to break their silence on the issue in a broader mannerGraham Gooch and Kevin PietersenKevin Pietersen is entitled to have his say He has been a matchwinning player for England I am sad to read his comments and I do not concur with many of his views Gooch told The Daily Telegraph newspaper Gooch termed Flower as Englands anchorI call Andy Englands anchor As head coach he created a calm and committed atmosphere in the England dressingroom He had great determination to prepare for every format of the game He always looked to promote attacking ideas to win matches Gooch who was the batting coach during Flowers tenure saidHe brought a new belief to players following a period of turmoil at least thats what I noticed during my involvement as batting coach He had strength of character and integrity and as a student of the game was always looking to embrace new training methods and ideologies He created a topclass atmosphere as mentor and motivatorWhen Kevin had been dropped for messaging South Africas players about Andrew Strauss in 2012 it was Andy who wanted to be conciliatory and build bridges If the allegation over the messages content was accurate it was unforgivable and lot of people were saying there was no way back for KP after that episode But Andy told me he was keen to repair the damageGooch said he does not remember about senior players bullying juniors for dropping catches I certainly dont remember any contretemps about dropped catches Of course you are trying to push the team to perform at its maximum and there are occasional flashpoints but nothing I remember carrying overThe 61yearold Gooch who has played 118 Tests for England having led the country in 34 of them feels that its time that the players stand by each other and reply back to the allegations I believe Alastair and others should get on the front foot a bit moreThe players may have been told to maintain silence but if I was still part of that dressingroom I would want to have my say irrespective of any media strategy fromthe suits I mean when the captain and coach stand up in the dressingroom to give a speech one of the strong messages is that we fight the fight togetherBut if you are not prepared to stand up to defend the culture in this sort of situation I dont see what credibility the other stuff has For me it is one and the same thing But Gooch did criticise star offspinner Graeme Swann for announcing his retirement midway through the AshesI dont agree with what Graeme Swann did I thought it was criminal to leave the tour at that stage It made us a laughing stock I cannot understand why he couldnt stick it out until the end of the trip It left a bad tasteGooch also called Prior a team man contrary to Pietersens claim Matt Prior is nothing but a team man and nothing but positive Matt was a key player for EnglandHe was our general in the field a wonderful cricketer who provided backbone to the team The sentiments that have been aired about him are pure fantasy to meI was not privy to conversations that happened behind closed doors But for me he was an exceptional bloke and a player who was a game changer Ultimately what is sacred to me is to play for your team and Matt Prior was exceptional at that