London - Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was adamant Friday that he made no promises to Kevin Pietersen about a possible return to Test cricket.
Graves, whose tenure as ECB chairman started Friday, released a statement via the governing body's website in his first public response to claims from Pietersen that he had received "incredibly deceitful" treatment.
Andrew Strauss, the new ECB director of cricket and Pietersen's successor as England captain, said Tuesday that a "massive trust issue" prevented the South Africa-born batsman's return, even though Pietersen is England's all-time leading run-scorer across all formats.
That appeared to contradict earlier comments from Graves that a return was possible if Pietersen, in international exile since the team's 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia last year, scored enough runs in county cricket.
But shortly after Pietersen made an unbeaten triple century for Surrey against Leicestershire on Monday, Strauss told him to forget about playing for England against New Zealand and Australia this home season.
That in turn led Pietersen to say he'd been "misled", with the 34-year-old going on to make an unbeaten 355 against Leicestershire.
But former Yorkshire chairman Graves had a different take on events, saying Friday: "In the past few days my integrity has been called into question, something I can't accept.
"Throughout my business career and my years at Yorkshire, integrity has been my watchword. It governs everything I do and is an important part of what I bring to the ECB.
AFP
