Kevin Pietersen should have been dropped long before axe, says England pacer Stuart Broad

England fast bowler Stuart Broad is of the opinion that axed batsman Kevin Pietersen should have been dropped by the national team a year ago rather than sacked.

Broad feels that the 'PR disaster' for cricket that has roared on for more than an year might have been avoided had Pietersen just been left out of the England squad until the batsman proved himself again in county cricket. He said that Pietersen's sacking didn't do the game 'any good at all', adding that the 'image of the team and the sport has been damaged slightly' with the axed batsman wanting to sell books, the Mirror reported.

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The paceman said that it could have been 'handled very differently', adding that he doesn't think Pietersen 'needed to be sacked'. He insisted that this was 'made a very big thing out of'. Broad said Pietersen needed to 'go and show some form in county cricket' to get back into the England team in May.

Broad said that then one picks the players who went, performed and did 'duties' for their counties, adding that it is a 'bit of an old school way of doing it'.