Stance on Pietersen unchanged, suggests Moores

A few days after Colin Graves appeared to open the door on Kevin Pietersen's return to the England side, Peter Moores has sought to slam it shut again.

Graves, the incoming ECB chairman, had suggested in the Telegraph that the selectors would be obliged to take notice if Pietersen did return to county cricket and score heavily. "If he plays county cricket and scores lots of runs, they can't ignore him," he said.

That led to speculation that Pietersen would reduce his T20 commitments - he is contracted to play whole seasons in both the IPL and the Caribbean Premier League - in order to make time to play county cricket.

But Moores, the England coach whose relationship with Pietersen was infamously poor when the pair were captain and coach in 2008, suggested that Graves' words had been "taken out of context" and that there was no change in the long-term policy towards the out of favour batsman as repeatedly expressed by the MD of England Cricket, Paul Downton.

"I think the policy on the KP situation has been made pretty clear by Paul," Moores said.

Downton has previously been scathing in his criticism of Pietersen and said that the England team have "moved on" from him. Chief selector, James Whitaker, who is currently with the team in Adelaide, has said there is "no way Pietersen will ever get back into an England team".

While both men are in position, it does appear Pietersen's hopes of a recall are slim.

The ECB also released a statement following Graves' comments saying that "nothing has changed" as regards to their policy towards Pietersen.

While it is understood that Graves and Pietersen have spoken in recent days, it increasingly appears as if the ECB's chairmen is regarded by others as having exceeded his authority and spoken out of turn and that his views are not those of his executive team.