LONDON — Incoming England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves has left the door open for a return to the England side for controversial former captain Kevin Pietersen and said he must return to county cricket to champion his cause. The 34-year-old was sacked by England in February 2014, was later released by county side Surrey and appeared to have severed any chance of returning to international cricket following the well-documented release of his autobiography. In his book Pietersen, who last played for England in January 2014's Ashes test in Sydney, berated a number of former teammates and ECB officials. National selector James Whitaker had said there was no way “Pietersen will ever get back into an England team” but Graves refused to rule out his return. “The first thing he has to do if he wants to get back is start playing county cricket,” Graves told the BBC. “The selectors and the coaches are not going to pick him if he's not playing, it's as simple as that. “At the end of the day it's down to the selectors and coaches and what they feel is best for English cricket. “They will make the decisions and I will support them when it comes to that decision.” ECB managing director Paul Downton said in December that too many “bridges had been burnt” but former captain Michael Vaughan said the their decision to continually overlook Pietersen should be addressed. “The ECB hate anyone talking about the Pietersen factor and have successfully managed to ensure the mainstream media do not bring him up, but there is no doubt he should be batting in this team,” Vaughan said in the Daily Telegraph after England succumbed to an abject eight-wicket defeat against New Zealand last month. Pietersen made his England debut in the first Test of the 2005 Ashes series at Lords and scored 8181 runs in 104 Test matches at an average of 47.28. The South African-born batsmen was lauded as one of the most damaging and feared stroke-players of his generation compiling 23 centuries and 35 fifties. England can still make last eight, says Morgan England captain Eoin Morgan insisted he was still confident of reaching the World Cup quarterfinals, despite Sunday's “hard to take” nine-wicket loss against Sri Lanka. The defeat leaves England on the brink of an early exit after heavy losses to New Zealand and Australia in their opening matches. England's final Pool A matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan now loom as must-win clashes but Morgan said he had not considered failing to make the last eight. “It's not even a thought at the moment — two games to win to get us into the quarterfinal,” he said. Morgan said the fact that England set a competitive 310-run target made the Sri Lanka loss more difficult to accept than the routs against Australia and New Zealand, when they were never in the game. “When you don't turn up for a race like those first two games, it's scratch. But today, when we turn up and we're beaten in that fashion it's harder to take.” Morgan said England performed with the bat, particularly Joe Root who made 121, but failed with the ball to allow Sri Lanka to finish on 312-1. “When we bowl one bad ball, every couple of overs or every over you're going to be punished,” he said. Morgan said England remained a quality side that needed to work on “the simple things” to click at the tournament. “It's not out of our reach or a million miles away,” he said. “It's just continuing to reproduce the simple things consistently.” — Agencies
