SYDNEY (AP) – Australian Test cricket captain Michael Clarke says he feels for Kevin Pietersen and would like to see him back in the England side – to a degree.
Andrew Strauss, England’s new director of cricket, last week said a “massive trust issue” would prevent the hard-hitting batsman from returning to the England team.
Clarke, who will captain Pietersen in the Melbourne Stars’ Big Bash Twenty20 side next season, said he had mixed feelings about the South-African born batsman’s exclusion from the England team – the personal side because they are friends (but) “the other side (is) we go there soon to play against England, so any team without Kevin Pietersen in it I don’t think is as strong”.
Clarke left on Sunday for Australia’s two-Test tour of the West Indies.
