London, Jan 8 : Former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain has said that claim, counter-claim and denial has reflected worse on English cricket than any Ashes whitewash, adding that Kevin Pietersen should have flown home to deal with the situation in a more professional manner.

"Kevin Pietersen should have gone about this in a much more professional way," Hussain told Sky Sports.

"You can't just sit on safari in South Africa and issue ultimatums to the board about the England cricket captaincy, it's far too important for that.

"You get off your backside, you come to England and you sit down with your bosses and you decide and discuss what is the best way to progress and what has happened in the last week is very, very poor indeed from a lot of people," he said.

"What has happened in the past week is very, very poor indeed from a lot of people," Hussain added.

Hussain, who was England captain for 45 tests between 1999 and 2003, blamed the ECB for not dealing quickly and effectively with the Pietersen-Moores conflict.

"The ECB knew from his history what sort of guy (Pietersen) was," Hussain said.

"He was abrasive, he took people on, he asked questions of people. When he took over the captaincy, he was going to be in your face. They must have known that eventually it was going to come to a clash between Pietersen and Moores and they should have been able to react to that," he said.

Lord MacLaurin, the former ECB chairman, went a step further, accusing Pietersen of "abusing the captaincy." (ANI)