Kevin Pietersen Twitter outrage over Lord’s pitch ‘doctoring’

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/19/kevin-pietersen-lords-india-cricket-england-tests

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The MCC has rejected a suggestion from Kevin Pietersen that one of its groundstaff was deliberately roughing up the pitch during the lunch interval on the third day at Lord’s.

Pietersen, who was watching the game on television, tweeted: “I cannot believe what I’ve just seen from one of the groundstaff.” In a subsequent exchange with a follower, who said the Lord’s employee was “dragging his foot down the wicket, how he get away with that. Unbelievable.” Pietersen added: “He cannot! He knew what he was doing!”

The pictures did show Shane Doherty, a member of Mick Hunt’s team, dragging his right foot along the line of the stumps as he swept the edge of the pitch with a large brush. But any conspiracy theory that he was doing so under instructions from the England team did not stack up, as they will have to bat last in the match, and the MCC issued a statement saying: “RE: the groundsman, MCC admits a genuine, honest mistake, and there was no intent to damage the pitch.”