Kevin Pietersen told to stay off from Modi

London: Kevin Pietersen has been warned by the England and Wales Cricket Board against having more meetings with Lalit Modi, the defrocked former commissioner of the Indian Premier League, after they were seen together in London before the first Test with Pakistan at Trent Bridge.

Pietersen was spoken to by the ECB's senior management on Saturday after he had scored 80 in the second Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston. But while the board has made no comment, Pietersen, who was reminded of his responsibilities as a player, is said to be fuming about being told with whom he can consort. Modi is suspended by India's Cricket Board (BCCI), pending corruption charges, so his meeting with Pietersen, an England contracted player, has been regarded as injudicious by those at the ECB.

Email warning

In May, Giles Clarke, chairman of the ECB, circulated an email warning county chairman and chief executives against meeting Modi until the latter's situation was resolved, something that obviously applies to the players following Saturday's call.

When asked about his tryst with Modi, Pietersen, who will have met him while playing for Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL, told the ECB that he had simply hooked up with an old mate. Pietersen likes money and successful people, having asked in the past to meet Simon Cowell, the man behind ITV's The X Factor.

Before his fall from grace, Modi had established a successful brand with the IPL in a very short time.

As a restless entrepreneur, he doubtless has other Twenty20 ventures planned, reasons why more people than just Pietersen, said to be fascinated by franchise cricket, might want to meet him. Clearly Pietersen has no interest in a career without international cricket but he does have a record of upsetting teams then moving on.

Beginning with Natal and South Africa Under-19s through Nottinghamshire, Hampshire and the England team he led with coach Peter Moores, there has been a trail of disruption. Does he need a county base? His recent struggles with form, and the fact that Hampshire have refused to disrupt their selection policies to help him, including not picking him for Saturday's T20 finals, suggest he may well do. Of course his 80 against Pakistan at Edgbaston suggests he is over the worst, but it was a scrappy innings in which he was dropped five times. "I think the ECB policy will be that all of our international players must be contracted to a county," Andy Flower, England's team director, said.