London, Jan 9 (IANS) Kevin Pietersen not only wanted Peter Moores out but was at loggerheads with batting coach Andy Flower too.
Flower is now tipped to become the interim coach for the West Indies tour after Moores was sacked and Pietersen forced to resign.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) may face a fresh crisis if they go ahead with the Zimbabwean's appointment as it emerged he was one of the backroom staff that Pietersen wanted England to get rid of.
'Pietersen wanted half of them out and certainly Andy Flower. I don't know what he was hoping to achieve but I've never encountered an ego quite like it in cricket. He wanted to run the show,' a senior official on the ECB was quoted as saying in The Guardian.
Another management board member said: 'I did hear that Kevin wanted Andy out.'
Flower, who did not expect to be named as interim coach under Pietersen for the Caribbean trip, said: 'I had heard something about this but not enough to make a comment. I have always had a good relationship with KP but we have not spoken in the past few days.'
A spokesman for Pietersen refused to deny the story.
The revelation confounds the notion that Pietersen only respects coaches with international standing. While Moores was a moderate county cricketer who was never close to international recognition, Flower was one of the finest players of his time.
The former Zimbabwe captain and wicketkeeper-batsman scored 4,794 runs in 63 Tests at 51.54, with a dozen centuries.
Now he faces an equally difficult task in re-integrating Pietersen back into the dressing room with the messy fall-out of the whole affair still dominating everyone's attention and with the Caribbean tour, which starts Jan 21.
A number of senior players said they preferred Moores to Pietersen when they were consulted by ECB managing director Hugh Morris in the past week, even though the coach had yet to make a real impact by taking the side forward.
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