They say KP is self-absorbed... he’s not half as bad as the England players when I started

WHEN we moved to Cobham in Surrey some of the dinner parties were desperate. It was more competitive than the Ashes.

I didn’t have anything in common with the people I was knocking around with. The things they were talking about — how big their house was, the holiday home in Chamonix, the latest handbag the wife had bought — I’m really not bothered.

Instead of getting to know them as people I got to know what they aspired to, what they wanted. All I could see was image and front and one-upmanship — who’s got more, who’s got the most.

To amuse myself, I started making things up. One guest would brag about having just been heli-skiing through inches of perfect powder snow so I’d come up with something ridiculous. Just lies to see how far I could push the absurdity of it all.

Now? We’re selling our house to get a smaller one; I drive a practical hybrid car. These things don’t interest me any more. I’ve tired of looking into the future, imagining all the things I want to have.

I’m gradually getting rid of all the things I don’t need. I’ve only been to the end of my garden about eight times. Why do I need so much? We’ve got a big house but we basically live in the kitchen. The pool table? I’ve probably played about six frames.

I’ve seen material competitiveness destroy relationships in dressing rooms. People end up worrying about what someone else is earning and whether they’re missing out. I see it now with cricketers in retirement. They’re so preoccupied by what everyone else is doing that they can’t be happy for themselves. Success isn’t about things we acquire.

The first England dressing room I came into, in 1998, under the

captaincy of Alec Stewart, I got changed with the dressing-room attendant, in a separate little room with a washing machine in it.

I don’t include Darren Gough or Angus Fraser in this but some of the players made little attempt to hide their coldness and selfabsorption. They were resentful of other players’ success. I never really got a sense that we were all in it together and that we were all trying to win.

The conversations were always ‘He’s got this sponsorship deal… he’s got that deal… I want to be man of the match… I want this, I want that.’ It wasn’t a team in the proper sense of the word.

It was a big disappointment. After all those years of watching your heroes on TV and this is how they behave? People say Kevin Pietersen is selfabsorbed. He’s nothing like as bad as some England players from that era.