Strauss is the only man who can save Kevin Pietersen's England career as Andy Flower and the rest of the team's management appear to have become too entrenched in their views against him.
Andrew Strauss is the only man who can save Kevin Pietersen's England career as Andy Flower and the rest of the team's management appear to have become too entrenched in their views against him.
The England Test captain is poised to meet Pietersen on Sunday or Monday after the former returns from a short break with his family. Strauss will need to be persuaded that Pietersen is truly contrite over the texts he sent to the South African camp and can play once more without disrupting team harmony.
It was thought the pair might meet today, but Strauss wanted to clear his mind of the 2-0 series defeat before dealing with him. Pietersen, for his part, played for Surrey against Welsh Dragons in the Tom Maynard memorial match at The Oval, scoring 43. Before play started, Pietersen was seen in animated discussion with the former England captain, turned Sky commentator, Nasser Hussain.
Flower yesterday confirmed he had no immediate plans to meet with England's problem child and both he and James Anderson said they could return to No?1 without him.
"Without a doubt we can get back to the top without Kevin Pietersen," said England's team director Flower yesterday. "English cricket has a great history and it has a great future. It is bigger than any one player. You will always move on from anyone, whether it be a captain, a coach or a player."
It was a claim echoed by Anderson, who, having come to prominence himself after seeing England dispense with Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, knows how quickly teams can move on. "We have seen we have talented guys like Jonny Bairstow coming through," he said. "If Kevin doesn't play Test cricket again it would be a huge loss because he is a devastating player, but we have enough talent to get back to No?1."
Life with Pietersen, not without him, is the most pressing point at present, especially for the principled Flower, who confirmed that the problems did not just revolve around the infamous text messages.
"There are other issues to be resolved," he said. "It would be inaccurate to judge it as just an issue between Strauss and Pietersen. I don't think it is something that can be sorted out overnight as there are a number of outstanding issues such as the breakdown of trust and mutual respect."
The biggest problem appears to be Pietersen's obsession with the Indian Premier League to the exclusion of everything else including his England team-mates' feelings.
His return from there this season, on the back of his pounds 1.3?million deal with the Delhi Daredevils, has coincided with increasingly obnoxious behaviour such as his insistence on watching IPL during Test matches and his subsequent demands to pick and choose his future England appearances, the upshot being that they are no longer his first team.
"I think it's fair to say that his issues over being available for the entire IPL have changed his attitude," said Flower. "I think that was the catalyst for a lot of the stuff. The IPL and the international fixtures in England are an area of conflict and will continue to be so.
"It would be better if there was a very clear window prior to our international season starting. But it doesn't look like that is an issue that is going to be sorted out in the future so it may well recur."
But is Pietersen the only villain after claims he was hurt by the parody Twitter account set up in his name and which some of his England team-mates had connections to, by knowing its author?
"I think one issue I could have handled better is when I heard that some of the players were occasionally looking at that Twitter account set up by some England supporter," said Flower. "I could have nipped that in the bud earlier. But let's just be perfectly clear on the severity of the situation. It is one thing, a few players having a giggle at a Twitter account, but another on some of the issues that we have seen rear their heads over the last two weeks.
"There are behaviours that are unacceptable and I think we've seen some of that recently. To move forward we must get over those hurdles."
It is too late for Pietersen to wield his bat on the World Twenty20 as the squad was announced without him in it yesterday, but England could certainly do with his ferocious ability to fashion runs on slow pitches when they play in India this autumn.
But that is likely to be too early for an inclusive solution given the squad for that tour, along with the next batch of central contracts, is set to be announced prior to England's
departure to the World Twenty20 on Sept 15.
But what must Pietersen do to convince his captain he can be rehabilitated? Words will probably not be enough as Pietersen's pronouncements since his retirement from one-day cricket have been contradictory.
Deeds, possibly in the form of a trial period, say on tour in New
Zealand in February, will count for more but that will require guarantees from him and forgiveness from his team-mates, and that could prove difficult to broker.
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