Pietersen's 'comeback' hopes shattered after ECB says 'no way back' for batsman

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Paul Downton has said that there is 'no way back' for Kevin Pietersen, shattering the star batsman hope of reviving his international career.

Downton reportedly gave the most detailed explanation regarding Pietersen's sacking in a press conference on Saturday, during which Peter Moores was unveiled as the new England coach as Andy Flower stepped down following the Ashes debacle.

According to Sport24, Downton said that there were two issues, what the ECB was going to do about Kevin and Andy Flower's future, when he arrived in Sydney for the fifth and final Ashes Test on 31st December

Downton said that he watched every ball of that Sydney Test match, adding that he had not seen anybody so disengaged from what was going on except for Pietersen.

He further added that one needs a senior player to back and support the team and work together with everyone, but they just got to a stage where that was no longer the case.

Donwton said that the ECB came to the conclusion that if England was going to rebuild after a 5-0 loss than they had to make a decision for the future, adding that for the side to grow they had to invest in new players.

Downton said that the ECB decided on building a new team with some core values, which would not happen with Pietersen in the side, so they decided not to select him

Pietersen is England's leading run scorer across all formats of cricket and had been sensationally axed from their national set-up following their 5-0 Ashes series loss in Australia, the report added.