KP backed me 100 per cent, says Strauss

London:

It was never easy to takeover the reigns from Kevin Pietersen following the dispute with then coach Peter Moores, but the England batsman himself promised full support which helped him to take a final call, revealed skipper Andrew Strauss.

Strauss, who led England to a 2-1 win over Australia to regain the Ashes urn, wrote in his autobiography 'Testing Times' that initially he hesitated before taking the final call as didn't has any idea about how to break the ice in the team.

"Just as I had told him (Pietersen), when he had asked my opinion about his taking on the captaincy, that he would be a fool not to accept it, so I said this time that I would be a fool if I did not accept.

"And he said: 'No problems, I will back you 100 per cent. My problem is with the ECB and Peter Moores. I knew there were issues between the captain and coach... like everyone else in the team, I did not know how they would be played out," the book was quited as saying in 'The Telegraph'.

Strauss recalled those difficult moments in the book.

"It came as a big surprise when the newspapers announced that Pietersen wanted Moores to be sacked. From thereon everybody was in a difficult position," said Strauss.

"Pietersen was on holiday in South Africa when I got a call from KP. He was on his way back from there and said he was resigning the England captaincy. This call came shortly after I had been contacted by managing director Hugh Morris, who said would I be interested in taking the job on?" Strauss wrote.

"I thought, and replied, that there would be certain issues which had to be resolved, including the England one-day side, which I had not played in for two years, and the captaincy of it.

"Then came a text from Pietersen, and a phone call from Geoff Miller, the national selector, who rang up to say: 'We need you to come into Lord's," the book reads.