![\"Alastair](\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Alastair-Cook.jpg\")
London: Former England skipper Alastair Cook has expressed regret over the decision to sideline all-rounder Kevin Pietersen from the national squad in 2014.<\/p>\nLondon: Former England skipper Alastair Cook has expressed regret over the decision to sideline all-rounder Kevin Pietersen from the national squad in 2014.<\/p>\n
Pietersen was axed from the squad with England director of cricket Andrew Strauss citing a “massive trust issue”, following their 0-5 Ashes series loss to Australia.<\/p>\n
Now, Cook, who quit the captaincy on Monday, put the blame on the England Cricket Board (ECB) saying that the whole issue was not properly handled.<\/p>\n
“I do wish it had been done differently. I felt it wasn’t handled particularly well by the ECB. I know I was the lightning rod for it, every person thought it was my decision. I felt I bore the brunt of that, unfairly in my opinion,” Cook was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“I felt a little bit let down by the ECB in that one period, where they kind of let me out to dry a little bit. But that’s all gone now,” he added.<\/p>\n
“I think we all have regrets over the way it was handled, but when Andrew Strauss came on board and made the final decision (Pietersen) wasn’t coming back, it made it a little easier.”<\/p>\n
Commenting on the decision to quit as the Test captain after being in the role for more than four years, he said: “It was a tough decision but in one sense easier than I expected. The hard bit was giving it away and telling myself it was time to go, because it is such a brilliant job, but it was easy because I felt I was done.<\/p>\n
“I’d been to the well a couple of times as England captain and I couldn’t go again. I’ve looked back a bit over the last couple of weeks knowing this was the end and I’m quite proud of what I’ve achieved,” he added.<\/p>\n
In December, England lost to India 0-4 away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London: Former England skipper Alastair Cook has expressed regret over the decision to sideline all-rounder Kevin Pietersen from the national squad in 2014.<\/p>\n
Pietersen was axed from the squad with England director of cricket Andrew Strauss citing a “massive trust issue”, following their 0-5 Ashes series loss to Australia.<\/p>\n
Now, Cook, who quit the captaincy on Monday, put the blame on the England Cricket Board (ECB) saying that the whole issue was not properly handled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1214,4744,466,1153],"class_list":["post-33182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-cricket-news","tag-alastair-cook","tag-cricket-news","tag-indian-sports-news","tag-kevin-pietersen"],"yoast_head":"\n