All-rounder Andrew Flintoff has cleared the speculation over his role in England's recent captain-coach rift by openly saying he did not support ousted skipper Kevin Pietersen to sack coach Peter Moores. Although skipper Kevin Pietersen and coach Peter Moores,who lost their jobs, had his backing, the all-rounder said he did not support Pietersen's move to oust Moores, and told Pietersen that."We had a sense of what was happening out in India and the one thing with Kevin (Pietersen), which I've said to him, was: 'As a captain, as a player, I'll support you'," Flintoff has been quoted as saying in the Observer."The way I played proves that. I played for Kevin as I did for Vaughany [Michael Vaughan] or Nasser [Hussain] or whoever it may be. I didn't want him to finish. I thought he could have given himself time to grow into the role," he added.As a senior member of the team, Flintoff's opinion was considered to be key as Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, investigated the falling out between captain and coach.
"But on the flip-side I couldn't support him in not having the coach there, because I had a good relationship with Peter Moores, and I was open about that with Kevin, with Mooresy and Hugh (Morris)," Flintoff said."We don't want to get into the football scenario where the team gets beat and the manager gets sacked. As players we've got everything at our disposal, we've got the coaches and we've got everything we need to perform. We've got to take some responsibility.To be fair to Mooresy the one thing he's kept is his dignity. Because he's a good man," he added.
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