Pietersen 'Sorry' for Text Messages

England batsman Kevin Pietersen has admitted sending 'provocative' text messages to his friends in the South African team, which have been said to contain remarks about England captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower....

It is the apology the ECB have been looking for, but it came too late to prevent Pietersen being dropped from the third and final test match with South Africa.

It has represented a huge and sorry week for English cricket, all on the eve of Strauss reaching one hundred test matches for his country.

Pietersen has said "The texts were meant as banter between close friends. I need to rein myself in sometimes."

"I did send what you might call provocative texts to my close friends in the SA team." he went on.

"I apologise to Straussy and the team for the inappropriate remarks at the press conference and for the texts." Pietersen concluded.

Strauss himself was then forced to face a barage of questions on the matter, when he emerged from net practice at Lord's, and hinted that there is a long way to go before 'Trust' can be firmly re-established back into the dressing room.

One very point of the conference with Strauss, was when the captain pointed out that "these issues should remain private and in the dressing room, not be left to PR people or the media'".

He could of course have been referring to the video released by Pietersen at the weekend, which tried to draw a line in the whole sorry episode.

There clearly is a long way to go before Pietersen will be back in England colours!