Quote:[size=12pt]Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith was among several pundits who slammed Andrew Strauss's decision to maintain Kevin Pietersen's international exile, saying it had made English cricket a "laughing stock".

Strauss, one of several England captains whose time as skipper came to an end after a series against a Proteas side led by Smith, has recently been installed as England's director of cricket.

On Tuesday, Strauss said Pietersen would remain in the international wilderness, with the South Africa-born batsman exiled from the England squad ever since the team returned from a 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia last year.

Strauss, whose final months as England captain in 2012 were clouded by "provocative" texts sent by Pietersen to Proteas players, said a "massive trust issue" lay at the heart of his decision.[/size]

Quote:When Colin Graves became the ECB's chairman elect and Tom Harrison its new chief executive, one of the first moves was to engineer an opportunity to defuse the Pietersen situation by opening the door to his re-selection. It was a smart decision, easing power away from the unloved Downton and placing responsibility back on Pietersen and the rest of England's players to perform on the pitch and behave in the media. Downton's job was dead in the water from that moment. A restructure brought Andrew Strauss as Director of Cricket and the internecine nature of the argument took another turn. Pietersen was no longer sacked, but could not be selected either. It's what generations of Civil Service Mandarins would recognise as a classic English compromise.