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Pietersen rues unfinished business

29 Nov 2008


Kevin Pietersen will head home with the rest of England's squad admitting he still has a burning desire to succeed in India should they resume their tour.

The England squad will fly home from Bangalore having made the decision to temporarily suspend the tour in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which have killed well over 100 people and injured hundreds more.

"It's been a hard few days," admitted Pietersen. "I've had the highs of beating South Africa and then we went to Stanford, which was a hard week, and then we've come here and it's been a really tough tour so far."

The future of the tour will depend on the security reports provided by consultant Reg Dickason and talks between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who have already moved the venue of the second Test from Mumbai to Chennai in a bid to calm fears.

But when they touch down at Heathrow airport, Pietersen confessed he will feel frustrated at being unable to mount a successful campaign in India having lost all five one-day internationals during their three-week stay.

He added: "All I want to do is play cricket and win. One of the biggest things for me is to come to this country and try to win something. I said to my wife last night that I felt horrible coming home and I haven't won anything.

"I'm a winner and I'm a positive person and that's what I want to do. We haven't won anything yet but there's something inside me that says you can't really leave here with unfinished business."

Pietersen's remarks could be interpreted as a desire to continue the tour and England, who were due to begin their solitary warm-up match before the first Test next Friday, are considering preparing for the Test series in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

But the players voted unanimously to return home, even if it does turn out to be just for a few days, and may take some convincing to return.

The England captain has already underlined he would not force any player to make the trip if they were not comfortable, stressing: "I'm not going to force any adult who has got a wife and kids and things like that to do anything - I would never force anyone to do anything they don't want to do."

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