5 cricketers who have voiced their support for Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen was one of, if not the most, flamboyant, captivating batsman of our time. Even after 10 months into his is forced retirement, the South African-born is still at the centre of media attention. The release of his book KP: The Autobiography has shaken up English cricket as a whole. His accounts about bullying culture within the English camp haven’t sat well with many.Former players including the likes of Graham Gooch and Martin Crowe have come out against him. The list also includes many of his ex-teammates; off-spinner Graeme Swann, skipper Alastair Cook, former captain Andrew Strauss, to name a few. As it turns out, KP isn’t alone. Here are 5 big names that have come out in support of the 34-year-old’s bullying-clique accusation.

#1 Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting

It's not every day you find an Aussie backing up an Englishman. Ricky Ponting, former Australian skipper, was one of the first to speak up Pietersen's avow.

"We saw them doing it, Anderson was always the same, and Swann. The pointing of fingers and you’d hear a few expletives if there was a misfield or a dropped catch," said the Tasmanian.

Ponting further added it was the captain who has to take control of the situation and not wait and let things worsen. The 2006 Ashes winning captain pointed out that albeit England having a lot of very good players and were able to achieve a lot of success as a team, the bullying clique was evident.

"If you could just get inside of them and start pulling them apart, we always had a feeling they would implode pretty quickly and that’s what’s happened over the past 12 months,” he said.

The 39-year-old also said such an atmosphere would never impel in an Australian dressing room and such behaviour was "not acceptable".

"No one means to drop a catch, no one means to bowl a bad ball, no one means to play a bad shot. It just happens in a game and you have to accept it and move on,” he added.

#2 Michael Vaughan

Michael Vaughan

Michael Vaughan, who was the first man Pietersen played under in England colours, too held up KP's allegations. Vaughan said that the bowlers had an intimidating clique and were even disrespectful.

The 2005 Ashes winning captain said the "bowlers' cabal" has been a problem for several years. Vaughan zeroed-in on Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad and claimed they have been disrespectful to the fielders. The 39-year-old further added that fielders don't drop catches on purpose, and no bowler would like to be questioned after bowling a bad ball.

The Yorkshireman also recalled stints with his county when he faced similar situations and hated fielding as he was scared of making a mistake.

Further, Vaughan dismissed Anderson's words about the difficulties latter faced during his initial days in the England camp as "ironical". Vaughan suggested that youngsters coming into the squad recently were probably given a rough end of the stick by the paceman.

#3 Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith

Graeme Smith, former South Africa captain, was another prominent name holding up KP's claims. Smith admitted that Proteas tried to use it to their advantage.

"Some of the stuff, I can believe and having played against him we always said if we could get a win and get ahead they would turn on each other," said the 33-year-old.

Smith had first-hand experience with Pietersen's mavericks as he was leading South Africa when the infamous "text-gate" unfolded.

"A lot of the stuff he has touched on in his book, the bullying stuff, you experienced playing against them and used it as an asset against them," he voiced.

Smith also felt that it's sad Pietersen isn't playing international cricket anymore and said the world loves to watch him play.

"Man-management is a big factor in why he is not there." added Biff.

#4 Steve Harmison

Steve Harmison

Former England seamer and Pietersen's ex-teammate Steve Harmison also accounted for the bullying culture. Harmison said it needed to be “nipped in the bud” and shouldn’t have been allowed to go on. However, he uttered that he doesn’t see Pietersen being a victim.

“The culture of bullying, if you want to call it that, had to be nipped in the bud,” Harmison said. “It wasn’t. That was a big mistake. It was allowed to go on and on, until Kevin clearly believed the other senior players were against him. However, I struggle a bit to see Kevin Pietersen as a bullying victim. That’s hard to picture.”

Harmison said he did not like the way some players behaved.

“I saw plenty of bowlers have a real go at a team-mate for a dropped catch or a misfield. I was never a fan of that. I didn’t do it. Is that bullying? I’m not so sure. Looking from outside, I didn’t like the way the players behaved at times and they did cross a line,” he added.

The 35-year-old also suggested that Ashley Giles missing out on England gig was a direct impact him being close to Kevin Pietersen.

#5 Ajmal Shahzad

Ajmal Shahzad

Ajmal Shahzad, who has played for England in 15 internationals, also spoke for KP's claims. Shahzad recalled it was "bit of a disgrace" if he made a mistake in the field.

The 29-year-old agreed that young players were singled out if they misfielded while senior team-mates were bowling and called it was a "tough environment". Shahzad threw light on an incident that occurred on his T20 debut where Jonathan Trott made a fielding error and had to apologise to the entire team the next day.

"I remember the next day we had a meeting in the hotel room, Trotty came to the front and apologised for what he'd done," voiced Shahzad. "Again, the feeling was he was made to; he felt as if he was asked to do so."

He also marks incident as something "he had never seen before".

"I felt, this being my first game, it was the way it was done; if you make a mistake you apologise for the mistake you've made. It was a little bit different," added Shahzad.

The Yorkshire paceman looked back at a slip-up he made during a World Cup match where he dived over the ball and said there were senior players whom he just didn't want to look at.

"You didn't want to look up because you knew you were going to get these hard looks, stern looks - and it did feel a little uncomfortable," said Shahzad, "There weren't many times when someone would come up to you and say 'don't worry about it - that's sport, you have ups and downs'."