Kevin Pietersen urges Andrew Strauss to get England cricket fans back onside after ‘treacherous 15 months’

Andrew Strauss, left, with Kevin Pietersen during their time together playing for England. Philip Brown / Reuters

Kevin Pietersen has warned one of the most important tasks for Andrew Strauss is to restore English cricket to its public after a “treacherous 15 months”.

Strauss has yet to be appointed as the England and Wales Cricket Board’s new director but already has some timely advice from his former teammate.

Strauss, the former Test captain whose working relationship with Pietersen reached a low ebb during the vexed summer of 2012, will doubtless face a series of tough and high-profile decisions if he does rejoin the ECB payroll this summer.

One of them may be whether to “reintegrate” controversial batsman Pietersen for a second time, after his axing by the ECB as they came to terms with the 2013/14 Ashes whitewash for Alastair Cook’s team.

Pietersen, who will be 35 by the time this summer’s rematch gets under way, has received fresh hope of a recall after new ECB chairman Colin Graves hinted that runs in county cricket may yet provide him with a pathway back to the Test arena.

In those circumstances, it will be essential that Strauss and Pietersen are seeing eye-to-eye again.

Pietersen appeared largely on board when he offered his views on the developing new management regime on the website BreatheSport, but he included an ambiguous turn of phrase which could refer equally to his own sacking or the team’s connection with their public.

“I hope Strauss & ECB bring the public back to the team after a treacherous 15 months,” he posted.

“They owe it to the fans! He has some HUGE decisions. Hope he gets them right ...”

It is not only Pietersen’s playing future which could be in Strauss’s hands but that of Peter Moores as coach as England try to put behind them the disappointment of an embarrassingly unsuccessful World Cup campaign and then a drawn series in the West Indies against opponents Graves described as “mediocre”.

The ECB announced last month, after managing director Paul Downton left his post, that they would recruit for a new role as director of England cricket.

Confirmed candidates have included former England captains Strauss, Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart.

But after Vaughan withdrew his interest, Strauss has emerged with an apparently uncontested claim to the new post.

His appointment is thought to be imminent, but it may have to wait until next week before all relevant arrangements can be put in place by management staff returning from the West Indies or England’s one-off, one-day international against Ireland in Dublin.

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