Captaincy not the 'best thing' for Pietersen - Anderson

England fast bowler James Anderson has said that having another stint as national captain would not be the "best thing" for Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen was named England captain in August 2008 but his stint ended in acrimony barely five months later after a much-publicised falling-out with then-coach Peter Moores. Andrew Strauss took up the role ahead of England's tour of the Caribbean in February 2009, and soon formed a formidable partnership with the new coach Andy Flower, another man about whom Pietersen had expressed reservations.

Though Pietersen had expressed his desire to captain England again after rumours emerged that Strauss would give up the limited-overs post earlier this year, he was passed over for the position, as the ECB chose to go with Alastair Cook as ODI captain.

In his column in the Mail on Sunday Anderson wrote: "Having seen him before, during and after he did the job, I believe he is actually much better suited to having a smaller but still important leadership role within the team, without the extra pressure of captaincy.

"Perhaps the biggest lesson the experience [of captaincy] has taught him is the value of team spirit and togetherness. His period in charge under the new coach Peter Moores was not a great time for the team; there were some big characters, big egos and big opinions in the dressing room. To me, too many people were bothered about who was the coach when they should have been focusing on performances on the field."

Anderson wrote there was "a big change in Kevin's attitude since he suffered the disappointment of being sacked as England captain".

"While he will probably say different, there may have been a time in the past when Kevin was possibly not the perfect team player. He still has a big voice in the dressing room but these days he is a strong team man."

Anderson observed Pietersen "has had to contend with a lot more on and off the field than most other players," brought on by, as critics would call "'KP, the brand', but that "when he's with us, there is no 'brand' in sight.

Following a dip in form Pietersen made a hard-fought 72 in the second innings of the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka and while "one score doesn't mean you're back in form", Anderson wrote that Pietersen "has been looking so good in the nets and he is so talented that we knew it was only a matter of time before he started scoring runs again, those runs still have to be scored and last week's effort will have done him and England a lot of good".