PTI

London, Jan 13: Former opener Geoffrey Boycott feels English cricket has become a laughing stock, thanks to the "appalling" way in which the ECB forced Kevin Pietersen to step down from captaincy.

"We are not the best cricket team but we are the best at making ourselves a laughing stock," a sarcastic Boycott wrote in his column for 'The Daily Telegraph'.

"On Sunday Pietersen told his side of the story. He is quoted as saying that before he left India: 'The last words from Collier and Morris during the last Test match in India were for me to do a strategy plan as to how I wanted to take the English cricket team forward.'

"They asked him. He did not give them the ultimatum. They requested a report. When they got the report they obviously didn't like what he said because he wanted a coach 'to be my ally who I trusted and was tactically aware. I didn't have that'," he added.

The England Wales Cricket Board apparently took Pietersen's e-mail for a resignation but Boycott said ECB CEO David Collier and managing director Hugh Morris ended up making a mess of the situation in their efforts to get rid of the maverick skipper.

"He was not saying he wanted to resign. He was being truthful and frank and for that he got the bullet. He presented his ideas by email on New Year's Eve.

"He had not resigned but they apparently chose to take umbrage at his ideas and turned his report around in order to get rid of him. This was a masterstroke of double dealing and bad man-management. It is an appalling way to treat any England cricketer and particularly the captain," he said.

Boycott said to sack both Pietersen and Peter Moores was logic-defying.

"Once they sacked Moores, why get rid of the captain? Why ask him for his 'way forward' in the first place if you are not going to give him support?" he asked.

"There are a lot of questions that Morris and Collier should be answering. So far they have acted like dinosaurs telling the public nothing. Collier and Morris will try to keep quiet and hope it will all blow over just because they have now appointed a good man (Andrew Strauss) who will be no trouble as captain and everyone likes him," he said.