England team director AndyFlower urged Kevin Pietersen on Saturday to put aside any disappointment at missing out on the captaincy and focus instead on climbing to the top of the world batting rankings. The former England skipper did not feature in a revolutionary three-man captaincy system announced on Thursday in which Andrew Strauss will captain the test side with Alastair Cook installed as the one-day skipper and Stuart Broad im charge of the Twenty20 team.
“I think Kevin may be disappointed not to be involved in the leadership team for the next few years,” Flower told reporters. “However, we are very keen for Kevin to become the leading batsman, not only in the English side but in world cricket. “He is ambitious and that is a great thing. He is an outstanding talent. He could be one of the best if not the best batsman in the world and we want him to regain that status because that will help him feel fulfilled and it will help us win cricket matches.”
Pietersen, 30, has scored 5,666 runs at an average of 48.42 in his 71 tests, and 3,648 at 40.98 from 114 one-day internationals. Flower dismissed rumours that Pietersen could quit one-day cricket.
