IPL not to blame for India's Test problems, says Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen has said it is wrong to blame the Twenty20 Indian Premier League for the tourists poor Test form in England.
In the absence of exiled former captain Pietersen, England came from behind to beat India 3-1 in a five-Test series, with skipper Alastair Cook overseeing the recovery.
That led many pundits to take what IPL star Pietersen said were "lazy potshots" at the lucrative Twenty20 event, which some have blamed for turning the heads of young Indian players in particular.
"It is a cheap shot to blame the IPL and portray the young Indian player as being uncaring about Test cricket," Pietersen wrote in his Daily Telegraph column on Monday.
"I know Virat Kohli will be hurting and I know how happy Murali Vijay was to score a century at Trent Bridge and almost get another one at Lord's. It was dream come true for all of them to play a Test at Lord's.
"It hurts these guys every single time they do not score Test runs."
Pietersen said it was the reluctance of Indian officials to let their players appear in domestic overseas tournaments, not the IPL, that was harming the team's Test chances,although batsman Cheteshwar Pujara recently agreed to join Derbyshire for the final few weeks of the English county season.
"The Board of Control for Cricket in India has stopped its players appearing in Twenty20 competitions because it does not want to add broadcast value to tournaments that rival the IPL," Pietersen said.