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Pietersen was lobbying the ECB to remove Moores as the relationship between captain and coach deteriorated - but in the end both men lost their jobs.

In the most turbulent spell in English cricket for some time, Andrew Strauss has now been installed as captain and the ECB are desperate for the players to come together and put all the disagreements behind them.

Talk is still rife of a dressing room split amongst the England team, and Flintoff did admit that he was against Pietersen’s desire to get rid of Moores.

“We had a sense of what was happening out in India and the one thing with Kevin, which I’ve said to him, was: ‘As a captain, as a player, I’ll support you.’ The way I played proves that,” Flintoff told media.

“I didn’t want him to finish. I thought he could have given himself time to grow into the role.

“But I couldn’t support him in not having the coach there, because I had a good relationship with Peter Moores, and I was open about that with Kevin, with Mooresy and Hugh (Morris, England cricket’s managing director).

“We don’t want to get into the football scenario where the team gets beat and the manager gets sacked.

“As players we’ve got everything at our disposal, we’ve got the coaches and we’ve got everything we need to perform. We’ve got to take some responsibility.

“To be fair to Mooresy the one thing he’s kept is his dignity. Because he’s a good man. He is a good man.”

Flintoff insists there are no cliques within the England camp, and says he and the rest of the players will be fully behind Strauss as he takes the helm for the tour of the West Indies.

“Straussy wanted everyone to get together so if there were any problems it could be done and dusted before we meet up. There weren’t. It lasted about 45 minutes, then we had lunch and went home,” said Flintoff.

“I’m not sure there was much of a problem to begin with. There obviously was between the coach and the captain but everyone else was fine. I don’t think something like that should ever happen, but it’s done, isn’t it, and you need to move on pretty quickly.

“I get on well with Strauss. He’s actually a good man. He’s his own man. We’re very much chalk and cheese, but we get on fine. He’s the brunt of the jokes sometimes, so we’re going to have to tone that down.”

The Lancashire all-rounder was, of course, captain himself for the disastrous Ashes tour of Australia, and Flintoff is adamant he never wants to lead England again.

“When Vaughany [Michael Vaughan] came back in I was glad to go back to the ranks,” he said.

New skipper Strauss took over from Pietersen after the England and Wales Cricket Board asked him to resign due to his well publicised row with coach Peter Moores, who was sacked.

Strauss, who will lead England on the forthcoming West Indies tour, said he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by Pietersen’s attitude and believed he would perform well in the Caribbean.

“I talked to Kevin a few times and I’ve been very, very pleasantly surprised by his attitude,” he said.

“He clearly is very passionate about playing for England for a long period of time. He recognises that what’s happened and the way things have happened is unfortunate.

“He loved captaining England so I suppose not being captain will take a while to settle in.

“But I think first and foremost he’s an incredible batsman and I’ve got no doubts whatsoever he’s going to go out to the West Indies and score millions of runs and prove what a strong character he is as well.”

Strauss admitted that morale had nosedived in the wake of the debacle but insisted that the England dressing room was not divided and that the squad would continue to grow stronger.

“It’s been a pretty low time for everyone involved but I was very reassured by the chats I had with the players, both individually and as a group,” he continued.

“We haven’t been affected particularly badly as a group by this. The divisions that the press made out were in the side were not evident at all.

The public fallout between Pietersen and coach Peter Moores came to a head when both lost their jobs. Moores was sacked by the ECB while Pietersen opted to resign.

Some reports had claimed that Flintoff was among a group of senior players that had failed to support Pietersen when approached by the ECB.

However Flintoff insists he had given both Pietersen and Moores his backing to keep their jobs.

“I hoped both of them could carry on in their jobs,” he told the media.

“I supported Kevin as captain and I also enjoyed working with Peter. It is a shame that things had to end the way they did.

“I guess something had to happen, but I probably didn’t realise how serious it was between them. Having only been involved for a short space of time I didn’t see it coming.”

Flintoff, who captained England during the Ashes drubbing Down Under, was linked as a leading contender to replace Pietersen as skipper.

However the Lancashire star insists he was not interested in the captaincy, which was handed to Andrew Strauss.

“The captaincy is not something I’m hanging out for,” added Flintoff.

“I had a go at it and I found it quite difficult trying to bat, bowl, field at slip and then captain as well.

England paceman Steve Harmison has called for coach Peter Moores and skipper Kevin Pietersen to sort out their problems before they rip the team apart.

Moores and Pietersen are thought to have suffered a breakdown in their relationship, and crisis talks are set to take place once the skipper returns from holiday later in the week.

With the Ashes coming up this year, after a tour to the West Indies, Harmison says that any problems between the pair need to be sorted out as soon as possible.

The future of Moores in particular has been placed in doubt by many pundits, with the ECB likely to side with their skipper and talisman if forced to take sides.

With just over a fortnight until England fly out to the Caribbean, some resolution has to be agreed upon sooner rather than later.

Durham paceman Harmison says that the pair need to think of the team above their own concerns, and sort out their differences quickly one way or the other.

“They have got to get their heads together and have a chat and sort out the issues,” said Harmison.

“It’s about the England cricket team - not Peter Moores or Kevin Pietersen.

Kevin Pietersen labelled Yuvraj Singh a “pie-chucker” after close of play on the third day of the third Test in Mohali.

India seized control of the match by claiming the wickets of Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff before the close.

But before those late wickets it was Pietersen’s confrontation with Yuvraj which had been the main talking point, with India captain MS Dhoni turning to his left-arm spin as soon as the England captain came to the crease.

“When the ball is swinging and seaming and you’ve got a guy like Zaheer Khan, who is one of the best bowlers I’ve ever faced, not bowling at you and you’ve got a pie-chucker like Yuvraj Singh bowling at you I really don’t mind,” said Pietersen.

“When you’ve got Zaheer Khan bowling from one end and you get left-arm filth like that it makes you feel really good.”

Yuvraj almost won the battle however, with Pietersen close to getting an inside edge onto his stumps from the first delivery and driving just wide of extra cover off the sixth ball.

The pair have waged a constant war of words throughout the series, Yuvraj performing a rabbit impression during the last Test after dismissing Pietersen.

India coach Gary Kirsten said Yuvraj’s introduction was not part of their gameplan, adding: “He’s got him out a couple of times, but you can get out to pie-chuckers as well. He’s a very effective bowler.

“We didn’t discuss anything in the changing room but that’s MS for you, he’ll come up with something. It was a great option to see if he could do something for an over.