Swann's book 'not clever' says Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen has labelled Graeme Swann's recent autobiography as ``not a clever book" after his England team-mate went into print to criticise him as ``not a natural leader".

Pietersen, in an interview with the BBC on Monday, insisted he had a good relationship with Swann and that the fall-out from the off-spinner's book would have no bearing on England's team spirit ahead of their upcoming series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

``Things are absolutely fine," said Pietersen. ``It was Swanny, Swanny likes to talk. It's not a clever book in the middle of your career, but it's not affecting anything that's going on in the team for sure.

Team spirit

"The team spirit we've got at the moment... a book won't change anything like that," Pietersen added.

``When we go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a couple of weeks time, the team will be as united as ever and that's not going to change for one second because of a book," star batsman Pietersen insisted.

Pietersen was briefly England's captain across all formats but resigned in January 2009 after questioning the credentials of then coach Peter Moores, who was sacked from his post.

Their exits paved the way for the successful alliance between current Test captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower that this year took England, who won the Ashes 3-1 in Australia and then, at home, whitewashed India 4-0, to the top of the world Test rankings.

Less impressive

But their one-day form has been far less impressive, with England struggling to get into the knockout stages of this year's World Cup in Asia before being well beaten by eventual finalists Sri Lanka. AFP