KEVIN PIETERSEN insists his revelations of bullying in the England dressing room are his way of defending himself at last after years of "character assassination".

Pietersen's former team-mate Graeme Swann has described the superstar batsman's autobiography, due to go on general sale on Thursday, as "codswallop" and "the biggest work of fiction since Jules Verne".

But after citing Swann, Matt Prior and former coach Andy Flower as central forces in the culture of bullying he says he and others encountered, Pietersen is staying on the front foot.

In a marathon round of broadcast interviews yesterday to publicise his book KP: The Autobiography, the 34-year-old restated his dislike for Prior and his depiction in print of off-spinner Swann as "the one who picked on players" in a "dominant clique" also containing fast bowler Stuart Broad.

Throughout the second half of his stellar international career – brought to a halt eight months ago when he was sacked by the England and Wales Cricket Board after last winter's whitewash Ashes defeat – Pietersen claims he took his concerns to Flower, to no avail.

That is why, after the end of a confidentiality clause, he is telling his side of the story, one he suggests has previously been distorted by forces at work in the ECB.

There have been many controversies, beginning when Pietersen lost the England captaincy after a disagreement with then coach Peter Moores in 2008-09 and continuing with his three-month exile from the team after a vexed summer of contract wrangles, Twitter parody and leaked text messages to opposition players about his captain Andrew Strauss in 2012.

The culmination, after a period of 'reintegration' which allowed him to become England's all-time record runscorer, came when the ECB ended Pietersen's employment in February, after which managing director Paul Downton noted the South Africa-born batsman's 'disinterest' in what appears to have been his last Test in Sydney.

Pietersen said: "Since the fall-out of the captaincy, my character has been assassinated on numerous occasions (and) I've not been allowed to give my side of the story because of the regime we were under.

"I think it is pretty important for the public, who've been fed by the ECB machine so many things about me, to read this book and go 'Okay, there is another side'.

"It's a different spin that the ECB machine are putting on me every single day. I'm not buying it.

"As sad as it is, it's been a battle I've been fighting since Flower was coach - so I had to try to defend myself."

Swann is unimpressed, but Pietersen points out a tweet from Ashes-winning fast bowler Chris Tremlett is more supportive.

"That is an incredible tweet from somebody who was in the dressing room, who saw what was going on - and obviously Swann's at the centre of this.

"It happened - and I wouldn't have written this book if I didn't think it happened.

"I know everything that's in this book I can stand by 100 per cent."

Pietersen recalls fielders being routinely forced to apologise to the 'bullies' among England's bowlers if they made a mistake.

Downton told the BBC on Monday that, to his knowledge, there has been no report of bullying from players to management.

But Pietersen said: "They have. They made a complaint to the coach and the captain, and they talked to the team about it ... and Swann and Broad disagreed with the captain and the coach and said 'No, we demand an apology; we deserve an apology'.

"A youngster, they would get at him, if he dropped the ball or if he let a batsman off the mark, or if he didn't save two runs.

"It would be constant. You had a captain and coach asking (them) to stop going at players, because people are feeling intimidated to field the ball.

"We're supposed to be in an environment where people can go out and enjoy themselves, get the best out of themselves, not be scared to take a catch or field a ball."

Pietersen did not feel a prime target, but did when he was told in 2012 that a Twitter account lampooning his personality was actually the work of a team-mate.

It was subsequently ascertained that an acquaintance of Broad's was writing the account, but the seamer himself had no knowledge of it.

"I dealt with it on a public scale with that Twitter account – and for me, that was incredibly upsetting," said Pietersen.

"These are guys you go to battle with, that I've won tournaments with, played incredible amounts of cricket with, shared the dressing room with for days and days, years and years, then I get this feeling of total horror when I find out this has been going on.

"It's that hollow, empty, horrendous feeling.

"I was crying in the dressing room at Headingley with the coach, saying 'How has it come to this?'"

Pietersen has been especially critical of Prior and claims vindication after the ECB did not re-engage the wicketkeeper on a central contract last month.

Prior missed much of the summer with an Achilles injury, and faces a long road back to fitness after recent surgery.

Whatever the future holds for Prior, Pietersen feels he has won his personal battle with him.

"It is the double standards," he said.

"I was the one who was made out to be this big, brash person ... and then I looked at the way he conducted himself in the dressing room.

"Things just weren't getting better. They were getting worse.

"I wanted to stand up to him, and I did stand up to him.

"When he got dropped (last winter), he was an embarrassment in the dressing room in Australia - and I don't think I can have been that wrong, because he doesn't have a central contract any more.

"England are finished with him."

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