Kevin Pietersen: I was told there was a clean slate with England

Kevin Pietersen returned to County Championship cricket to win back his England place after being offered a "clean slate" by England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves, the batsman said on Saturday.

However only this week it emerged he was told by new England cricket director Andrew Strauss that a "massive trust issue" remained and that was the reason given to Pietersen for his exclusion from the national side.

Pietersen was sacked by England 15 months ago in the wake of the Ashes whitewash in Australia but appeared to believe he could play his way back into the team following telephone conversations with Graves.

But his hopes of a return this summer were quashed when, just hours after scoring a maiden triple-century for Surrey against Leicestershire, he was told by Strauss that he would not be selected.

Graves said on Friday that he "didn't make any promises" to Pietersen and the 34-year-old admits that is the case, but on Saturday, in response to a comment on Twitter, Pietersen said: