“Once you start disrespecting the captain outside of the dressing room, then trust breaks down. Obviously, they will try and mend it. Everybody likes Pietersen’s talent and his wonderful batting, but you have to separate his talent, his ability, from the team situation,” Boycott was quoted as saying by PakPassion.com.

“There’s a bigger issue here than how many runs Pietersen scores or, how good a player he is. If he was a lesser player, they would have probably sacked him straight away,” he said.