WARM WORDS FROM HARMY

STEVE HARMISON branded his former England team-mate Kevin Pietersen’s treatment by Lord’s a “disgrace” – but KP only found out when Harmy’s book was recently serialised by Mirror Sport.

Grievous Bodily Harmison said in Saturday’s Mirror (below) that the England & Wales Cricket Board’s dossier charting Pietersen’s alleged misdemeanours on the 2013-14 Ashes tour proved there was a premeditated plot to nail him.

And KP’s sacking, as the scapegoat for a 5-0 whitewash, remains one of the worst botch jobs of all time – even by English cricket’s standards of farce.

Pietersen accepts his England career is over at all levels – Test, one-day and T20 – but he was reassured by Harmison’s anatomy of a stitch-up.

“I didn’t know about Harmy’s comments until I saw a tweet linking them to the story in the Mirror online, and it was a nice thing to see,” said Pietersen.

“But it was a long time ago and it doesn’t affect what I do now – I am quite happy on the golf course and playing for T20 teams around the world.

“I rang Steve up to thank him for taking the trouble to defend me and I wish a few more had been brave enough to speak up like him.”