Successful KP demands more from his team

England captain Kevin Pietersen has demanded more effort from his players.

London, Sept.4 : England captain Kevin Pietersen has demanded more effort from his players.

KP has won every match since agreeing to take over from Michael Vaughan as Test and one-day skipper on August 4. He has won one Test and four one day internationals.

He has galvanised his players and England have soared to No 3 in the official world one-day rankings.

They would be second if they had completed a 5-0 whitewash in the NatWest Series in Cardiff yesterday instead of being rained off.

But Pietersen says this success is only the start - and he will not tolerate any slacking.

All the guys are hungry for success. I think there are a lot of players who settled for a comfort zone in certain areas but I don't live with any comfort zone. I don't settle for mediocrity," The Sun quoted Pietersen, as saying.

I want the guys to chuck their talent around and be the best person they can be. There's no point living if you don't want to be the best person you can be. The key for us to keep trying to get better. I watched an interesting interview with Ricky Ponting last year who said it was easy to be Austalia's captain because every guy wakes each day up wanting to get better and better," he added.

He also said that he expected the tour to India to be hard.

Man of the Series Flintoff, who is back to his absolute best with bat and ball, added: "When a new captain takes over, everyone is eager to impress. Kevin has played a major role and his confidence is rubbing off on the rest of the boys.

"He talks about work ethic - well, he's right up there for that. He demands a lot of his players and they have responded."

ANI