Pietersen home as England regroup
Watch Pietersen arrive back in the UK
Kevin Pietersen has arrived home as England look to the future after his shock resignation as captain.
Pietersen, 28, made no comment after flying into London on Thursday following a holiday in South Africa.
He quit as skipper on Wednesday after just five months in charge following a fall-out with coach Peter Moores, who was sacked on Wednesday.
New England captain Andrew Strauss will address the media at a news conference at Lord's at 1500 GMT.
Wednesday's tumultuous events leave England in disarray ahead of the tour to the West Indies and the Ashes series against Australia this summer.
 | If it hadn't come out now what would the impact have been had it come out in April or May, with the Ashes just around the corner - it would have been an absolute disaster for English cricket BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew |
They leave for the Caribbean on 21 January, and the England and Wales Cricket Board will now begin its search for a new coach.
Strauss has been named as captain for the tour of the West Indies, although it is not known whether he will also take charge of the one-day and Twenty20 teams.
Pietersen, who admitted last week his relationship with Moores was strained, has stated his desire to remain involved in the England set-up.
And former skipper Michael Vaughan, whose potential return to the England team led to a clash between Pietersen and Moores, has backed him to put the controversy behind him.
"What Kevin has to do now is go to the West Indies and score a hundred in the first Test, then it will be forgotten," Vaughan told the Daily Telegraph.
"England need Kevin to be challenging to be the number one batsman in the world.
ECB confirms Pietersen and Moores departure
"Strauss and KP get on well although they are very different people. There will be pressure on KP after all the controversy and I hope he is not going to be affected by it.
"He has the flair and ability to make world-class bowlers look ordinary, and I think he will average 50-odd and become the world number one."
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew believes Pietersen was desperate not to relinquish the captaincy but insists he has only himself to blame.
"He hung on and he hung one, he didn't want to go. It wasn't until 1715 GMT that he finally resigned when he was given the ultimatum by the ECB that either you resign or you are going to be sacked," Agnew told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"He brought about his own downfall. I don't know who was advising him or what position he thought he was coming from but it was a serious miscalculation.
"He clearly felt that he had the team behind him in flagging up that he didn't think Peter Moores was a good enough coach to take England forward and he miscalculated there.
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"We can probably assume that Andrew Flintoff was more in the Moores camp than Pietersen's. There will have been one or two other senior players who will have felt the same way too.
Pietersen has signalled his intent to play a full part in the West Indies tour, which includes four Tests, a Twenty20 international and five one-dayers.
With England then hosting the West Indies, the ICC World Twenty20 and an Ashes series, Agnew feels it was important for the Pietersen-Moores rift to come out sooner rather than later.
"The Board were very angry that this had been put into the public domain but I'd say thank goodness it was," he added.
"If it hadn't come out now what would the impact have been had it come out in April or May, with the Ashes just around the corner? It would have been an absolute disaster for English cricket.
"Now they have got time to put things in place, get a new captain and go out and find a good new coach. It might be the man they didn't bother approaching last time, Tom Moody.
Pietersen will regret behaviour - Gatting
"There have now been three captains in far too short a space of time. I wouldn't have thought there will be a coach in place until the start of this summer, but this sort of thing can sometimes pull a team together."
Duncan Fletcher, Moores's predecessor as England coach, thinks Strauss could have serious problems uniting a squad that is reportedly divided over Pietersen.
The Sun newspaper described Pietersen as "cricket's most hated man" who had been "shunned" by his team-mates and employers, the Daily Mirror claimed Flintoff, James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Steve Harmison were "not his fans" and the Daily Mail alleged "Flintoff and other senior players had turned against him in his battle for power with Peter Moores".
"Not the least of the difficulties will be how to handle KP when he returns to the rank and file," Fletcher wrote in his Guardian column.
"The ECB has exposed him somewhat by admitting that its research, whatever form it took, revealed a lack of support for Pietersen as captain.
"That to me sounds like a huge problem in the making: will the dressing room divide into pro- and anti-KP camps? How will it gel?
| Every player has to toe the line and if it's to the detriment of the team then that player has to go - I don't care how good he is, you're not bigger than the game Former England batsman Graham Thorpe |
"Will the new captain have the backing of all the senior players? It's going to be a huge issue for the poor captain in the months ahead."
Former England batsman Graham Thorpe has no doubt that Pietersen can make a successful return to the side but feels he should be dispensed of if he causes further problems.
"Kevin Pietersen has taken a massive gamble and it has backfired on him and the next phase will be whether or not he can step back in a be a player again. He can make it work," Thorpe told 5 Live.
"Strauss has got to try to bring the team back together again and he'll have to sit down with Kevin Pietersen to see whether he'll buy into that.
"Every player has to toe the line and if it's to the detriment of the team then that player has to go. I don't care how good he is, you're not bigger than the game."
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