South Africa in rage over Pietersen comments

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Cricket South Africa (CSA) have complained to the International Cricket Council (ICC) about critical comments attributed to South African-born England batsman Kevin Pietersen in a magazine interview.

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In the GQ interview Pietersen attacked South Africa's selection policies and implied that former national captain Hansie Cronje, who was banned for life because of his involvement in match-fixing, shielded other corrupt players.

“Cricket South Africa has launched a complaint to the England and Wales Cricket Board on Pietersen's claims of racism, and we have launched a complaint to the International Cricket Council on his corruption claims,” CSA liaison officer Gordon Templeton told Reuters on Friday.

In the interview, Pietersen was quoted as saying that the appointment of black player Ashwell Prince as South Africa's captain in the absence of injured regular captain Graeme Smith was “further evidence that things were going downhill”.

“It's got nothing to do with the colour of his skin,” Pietersen was quoted as saying. “It's just that better players are being left out for political reasons and until that system changes South African sport will continue to go downhill.

“I've got some mates who are now on the fringes of playing domestic cricket in South Africa who are better than three or four of those players in the South African side.

Pietersen was also quoted as saying Cronje was made a scapegoat in the match-fixing crisis.

“At the end of the day (cheating) is wrong... But I can see how it happens,” Pietersen was quoted as saying.

“Hansie copped a lot more than he should have. I think he took the brunt for the players. There are a lot of people who I think that have done stuff that people don't know about and got away with it.”