Steve Harmison backs Kevin Pietersen's bullying claims

While many have rubbished Kevin Pietersen's claims that a culture of bullying existed in the England cricket team, former Test bowler, Steve Harmison thinks otherwise. While backing his former team-mate's remarks that some of the senior players acted as bullies, Harmison said the England management failed to nip it in the bud.

Pietersen, in his autobiography titled 'KP', had harsh words to say about England's bowling attack, often referring them as a unit, who never hesitated in pulling up their team-mates for every small error on the ground. He wrote that the senior players, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Stuart Broad abused fielders for every lapse.

While Swann, Prior and Anderson have denied those accusations, Harmison mentioned that there were some divisions within the England team and nothing was done to address them. He also mentioned that he did not feel Pietersen was a victim of bullying, despite the star batsman claiming that he was targetted by some members of the England team through the controversial @KPgenius Twitter account.

In his column for Chroniclelive, Harmison wrote: "I saw plenty of bowlers have a real go at a team-mate for a dropped catch or a miss-field. I was never a fan of that. I didn't do it. Is that bullying? I'm not so sure. Although it's not nice to be given a rollocking either out on the field or back in the dressing room. Kevin does have a point here. Looking from outside, I didn't like the way the players behaved at times and they did cross a line. The senior players should have dealt with this. They would have in my day. When that went on, and it did at times, myself or Andrew Flintoff would have a word in the ear of someone who was letting off steam. 'Go easy on him. Can't you see his head is down.'"

"The culture of bullying, if you want to call it that, had to be nipped in the bud. It wasn't. That was a big mistake. It was allowed to go on and on, until Kevin clearly believed the other senior players were against him. However, I struggle a bit to see Kevin Pietersen as a bullying victim. That's hard to picture I'm not saying he was a bully but I saw for myself the way he could behave towards guys that 'weren't up to it'. He didn't give James Taylor or Michael Carberry much of a chance. KP wasn't afraid to criticise," he added.

Regarding Pietersen's clashes with Andy Flower, Harmison wrote: "I clearly remember one nets session in 2008 when Andy wanted to throw down to Kevin. He wasn't having that. He almost barged Andy out of the way and got someone else to do it. Ouch. Back then, he was KP the King. The captain, our best player and a superstar. Andy was merely one of the ECB's foot-soldiers. Fast forward a couple of years and Andy is King, with three Ashes wins and a T20 World Cup victory, while Kevin is back to being a lowly player. They were bound to clash. Kevin wanted both Peter, another good guy, and Andy to go in 2008. He never got his wish in terms of Andy."

Harmison also mentioned that Ashley Giles missed out on the England coach's job because of his close relation with Pietersen. Harmison said Giles coming out in support of Pietersen following the Ashes debacle probably cost him the job. "I believe that certain decisions had been made before the squad flew to Australia for the last Ashes series. The ECB knew that Kevin's time was up, or at the very least that his having his contract torn up was a possibility. He was skating on thin ice when he got on the plane. They let him slip through the cracks. Easier to do after a 5-0 whitewash."

I think that cost Ashley Giles the coach's job. I saw Ash the other day and it's great he is still in cricket with a great job at Lancashire, but his relationship with KP will have cost him the big one. He would have walked into that interview and told the ECB; 'I know KP, I played with him and I'll get the best from him. We need the guy." That sealed his fate. The ECB should have been up-front with Ashley about their plans for Kevin," Harmison wrote.