Team director of English county cricket club Surrey, Alec Stewart, had reportedly informed the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in July 2012 that England trio Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan had access to a parody Twitter account mocking ousted batsman Kevin Pietersen.
Stewart claims that he was told by its creator Richard Bailey that the trio had passwords to the '@KPGenius' account. Pietersen has said in his autobiography that the account was an example of bullying in England's dressing room.
There is no suggestion any of the trio contributed to the account. Stewart, England's most-capped Test cricketer, said that Bailey, who has no official connection to the England camp, introduced himself as the account's author during the Test against South Africa at the Oval in 2012 and revealed Swann, Broad and Bresnan had access to it, The BBC reported.
Stewart said that it didn't sit comfortably with him as a former England cricketer and an England fan that this type of thing might be going on, adding that it was not because he wanted them to get fined or anything, he has huge admiration for all three, but it didn't sit comfortably with him if factually correct.
The Surrey team director said that he had a conversation with then ECB managing director Hugh Morris during the Oval Test match and then with England coach Andy Flower at a later date. He added that it was then down to the ECB to investigate things if they wanted to or they could ignore it.
He said that he does not know what happened after that.
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Pietersen wrote of the exchange between Bailey and Stewart in his book, but Bailey claimed this week that he only told the former England captain that some of the England players might know that he was behind the tweets.
Stewart said that the reason why he is prepared to talk about this is because Bailey said that he didn't say anything to him, therefore doubting his integrity and he would not have that.