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Swann defends England's tour conduct

Graeme Swann admits it has been a difficult tour © Getty Images

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Spinner Graeme Swann has denied that a rift with Kevin Pietersen played any part in England's embarrassing series whitewash in India.

England suffered a comprehensive 5-0 defeat in their one-day international series against MS Dhoni's men, in a total reversal of fortunes after dominating on home soil earlier in the summer.

Swann courted headlines prior to the start of the ODI series by criticising Kevin Pietersen's leadership skills in his recently published autobiography, but Swann insists the matter was dealt with swiftly and is not a cause behind the team's recent troubles.

"England have endured a horror month but I can state right now it has nothing to do with what I wrote about Kevin Pietersen in my book," Swann wrote in his column for The Sun. "I spoke to Kevin and explained exactly what I'd written, why I'd written it and that it was not intended as a personal attack on him.

"He accepted that and we shook hands. My relationship with Kevin is exactly the same now as before the book was published."

The Nottinghamshire bowler revealed that he has been on the receiving end of personal attacks in recent days, even receiving death threats via social networking site Twitter from fans outraged at England's various capitulations.

"Although I don't condone death threats on Twitter, I could almost understand it when I had a couple of hundred people threatening all manner of retribution after Tuesday's match," he said. "Not everyone in cyberworld has a perspective - after all, it is only a game of cricket. But you can almost understand why people get wound up.

"It can't be easy to watch us, not just losing but losing the way we did."

Much has been made about the conduct of the two sides over the course of the series, which has seen a series of flashpoints both during and after games where players from both sides have squared off.

Swann believes such incidents are a product of playing the same team so frequently, but rejects any accusations that English players have been the only instigators of trouble.

"Look at the score - we lost 5-0. Of course tempers can bubble over. We saw the Indian bowlers get frustrated with their fielders when they were losing in England," he noted.

"I know there have been running battles with a couple of India's players and I think caused by individuals in our team disliking individuals in their team. We have played India for three months now. You're never going to like all 11 blokes in the opposition.

He added, pointedly: "I can assure you the comments and personal abuse Samit Patel receives from the Indian players is far worse than anything we've said."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.