5 cricketers who have voiced their support for Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen was one of, if not the most, flamboyant, captivating batsman of our time. Even after 10 months into his is forced retirement, the South African-born is still at the centre of media attention. The release of his book KP: The Autobiography has shaken up English cricket as a whole. His accounts about bullying culture within the English camp haven’t sat well with many.Former players including the likes of Graham Gooch and Martin Crowe have come out against him. The list also includes many of his ex-teammates; off-spinner Graeme Swann, skipper Alastair Cook, former captain Andrew Strauss, to name a few. As it turns out, KP isn’t alone. Here are 5 big names that have come out in support of the 34-year-old’s bullying-clique accusation.

#1 Ricky Ponting

It's not every day you find an Aussie backing up an Englishman. Ricky Ponting, former Australian skipper, was one of the first to speak up Pietersen's avow.

"We saw them doing it, Anderson was always the same, and Swann. The pointing of fingers and you’d hear a few expletives if there was a misfield or a dropped catch," said the Tasmanian.

Ponting further added it was the captain who has to take control of the situation and not wait and let things worsen. The 2006 Ashes winning captain pointed out that albeit England having a lot of very good players and were able to achieve a lot of success as a team, the bullying clique was evident.

"If you could just get inside of them and start pulling them apart, we always had a feeling they would implode pretty quickly and that’s what’s happened over the past 12 months,” he said.

The 39-year-old also said such an atmosphere would never impel in an Australian dressing room and such behaviour was "not acceptable".

"No one means to drop a catch, no one means to bowl a bad ball, no one means to play a bad shot. It just happens in a game and you have to accept it and move on,” he added.