Kevin Pietersen-ECB controversy: Alec Stewart says 3 England cricketers had access to Kevin Pietersens’ parody Twitter account

Oct 9, 2014

Alec Stewart, the former England captain said that three England cricketers mocked Kevin Pietersen on social media through the parody Twitter account of Pietersen. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were given the names of three players who had allegedly had access to the that particular Twitter parody account that caused a rift between England’s star batsman and his colleagues.

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According to Telegraph Sport Stewart stood by the claims made in Pietersen’s autobiography that he passed on the names of the players, including Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, to Hugh Morris, the then director of the England team, and Andy Flower. Stewart was responding to the claims of the account’s author, cricket fan Richard Bailey, that England players were not directly involved in the account set up in the summer of 2012, which poked fun at Pietersen.

In his book Pietersen wrote that Stewart passed on to Morris and Flower that Bailey had told him three England players had the account’s password on their mobile phones giving them the ability to tweet from it themselves. Stewart confirmed he passed on the names of Swann, Broad and Tim Bresnan. Pietersen writes in his book how he was “totally broken” when he found out team-mates had been passing on information to Bailey.

“I absolutely stand by what is written in Pietersen’s book,” said Stewart, England’s most capped Test cricketer. “I went and told Hugh Morris and Andy Flower on separate occasions what I had been told by this fella.”

Stewart said he was approached by Bailey during the first Test against South Africa at the Oval in 2012 on three separate occasions. “I said to him some of it [the account] was very funny and that he had got some good information. He said yes I do. He then said, ‘Can you keep a secret?’ I said, ‘it depends’. He went away and then came back and named three players who had access to the account password.

“If that was the case it did not sit well with me. I passed it on to the ECB and it was up to them how they dealt with it. I was doing it for the good of the England team and how the hierarchy dealt with it was up to them but I felt they had to be made aware of it.”

Even though Stewart says the author told him the players had access to the account, there is no evidence they ever tweeted from it. Broad issued a statement at the time saying he had no involvement in the account and Bailey says he only met Swann this summer. Bailey is a friend of Broad’s and there was a photograph on his Twitter account of him with the England bowler.

Stewart says he had two witnesses with him when he had the conversation with Bailey, who told the Guardian on Wednesday: “When I spoke to Alec Stewart I actually said others ‘might’ know it was me doing the tweets. I have a witness to that conversation.” Writing in his column for The Sun newspaper on Tuesday, Swann says he had “no access to the account”.

Pietersen’s former England colleague Michael Carberry tweeted on Wednesday that he had not fallen out with Pietersen. An ECB document leaked on Tuesday afternoon listing Pietersen’s alleged misdemeanours in Australia included him making “disparaging” remarks in front of England players and management about Carberry. The document says he stated, “Aren’t there any better players at county level? Carberry is useless.” But in a blow to the ECB’s case against Pietersen, Carberry, who has been critical of England’s management on the tour to Australia, tweeted: “Morning!! Just to set the record straight re: @KP24, I’ve never had any issues with Kev. We have always got on well and still do.”

Ashley Giles took over as Lancashire director of cricket on Wednesday and refused to be drawn on Pietersen’s claims of bullying in the England dressing room. Giles played with Pietersen and was England’s one-day coach until he lost his job after the World Twenty20.

“I don’t want to get sucked into it, this is not the day to talk about Kev’s book,” he said at Old Trafford. “I played with Kev and got on very well with him, but similarly with those other guys as well. I coached them and never had any major issues with them. He [Pietersen] would consider himself to be a multi-million-pound asset, I’m sure, he’s that sort of player. He’s the big show, if you like, but things have unfolded and he’s not going to play for England again by the looks of it. I’m sure it is disappointing for him but everyone has to move on.”

Angus Porter, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, has confirmed that the union has not received any complaints of bullying by England players. Pietersen revealed in an interview with Telegraph Sport on Monday that a culture of bullying existed within the team.

More from Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography here