Kevin Pietersen's relationship with England coach Peter Moores was doomed from the very start as the skipper respects only South African coaches or those who have been world class players, claims his former county team Nottinghamshire's Director of Cricket Mick Newell.
Pietersen left Nottinghamshire in acrimonious circumstances in 2004 and Newell says it is tough being a coach to Pietersen, who is not just "driven and dedicated, but also uncompromising and intolerant of mediocrity".
"Ideally for Kevin, the coach would be South African or someone who was once a worldclass cricketer," Newell told Sportsmail.
"Anyone else is going to struggle to work with him. If you're an average county player like Mooresy was, and he would admit that, and you had earned your coaching reputation in the county game, that would mean nothing to Kevin. It just wouldn't register with him or earn his respect.
"The bottom line is that Peter Moores means nothing to Kevin in terms of name or reputation. Because of his background, he has more time for Southern African coaches because they taught him the game. He really enjoyed working with Ricey (Clive Rice) and also had a good relationship with Duncan Fletcher," he added.
Recalling his own experience of working with Pietersen, Newell said though the left-hander never undermined his authority but the two never really shared a very warm relationship.
"The hardest thing for me was that I took over from Clive Rice, who Kevin grew up worshipping. Ricey had brought him over to England, so when he left Notts it was obviously a problem for Pietersen, because he had been the reason to come to the county in the first place," he said.
"To be fair to Kevin, he was very professional about it. He never set out to cause a huge amount of trouble. We made him stay for the last year of his contract when he wanted to leave, but he knuckled down and made sure he scored a lot of runs. He was determined to play for England and he wanted to make a strong case to do that," he added.
Newell said Pietersen likes to lead from the front and gets agitated if the team fails to match his high standards.
"To work with him any coach would have to be prepared to let him act as the front man," he said.
