Michael Vaughan has revealed that many former England players were jealous of Kevin Pietersen after the latter bagged a huge contract with the Indian Premier League (IPL).

In 2009, Royal Challengers Bangalore had bought Pietersen for $1,550,000, which made him the highest-paid IPL player along with Andrew Flintoff at that time.

"I think there was a lot of jealousy," Vaughan said in an interview with foxsports.com.au. "And the players will completely deny it now but I think there was at the time when Kevin was on a massive contract.

"There were all sorts of whispers and rumours of cliques in the team. There was a little band of a few; Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, (James) Anderson, (Stuart) Broad and Matt Prior. The whispers were they were on one side and Kevin was kind of standing on his own on the other side," the former England captain said.

The 45-year-old further said that while Pietersen was off the view that playing in the IPL would further the development of the one-day team, England players felt he was going after money.

"It wasn't anything other than that Kev (Kevinn Pietersen) around that time wanted to go to the IPL. That's how it all started to blow up and that's when those factions came into play," said Vaughan.

"He was saying to the team he wanted to play because it would further the development of the one-day team and all the one-day players would get the chance to play there and improve their game. They deemed that he just wanted to go for the money. He was on a big contract while not many of the other players were even getting sniffed at.

"It was very much Kevin against the team in terms of that one," he added.

During the course of the interview, Vaughan also said that Pietersen should have never played for England again after the infamous Text-gate scandal in 2012.

Pietersen, who was born and brought up in South Africa, was accused of sending texts to South African during a Test series between the two teams against his captain Andrew Strauss and a few of his team-mates.

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England footballer Dele Alli turned 24 recently and celebrated despite being in isolation due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Tottenham star posted pictures of his April 11 birthday celebration on social media where he played games like Twister and Pin the tail of the donkey. "Turning 24 in isolation wasn't so bad," Dele captioned his Instagrammed pictures. Dele loves his Playstation and so it was no surprise to see his cake in the shape of a PS controller.

Dele was even seeing enjoying a barbecue lunch in his garden, wearing a cute, silver conical cap and shades. His 7.1 million Instagram followers enjoyed his posts, giving him over five lakh 'likes'.

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The head of the English Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) has raised the possibility of playing shorter matches to lighten the load on players if the season can restart. English clubs remain committed to completing the campaign despite severe concerns over player welfare. Players could be tested up to three times a week and be forced to stay quarantined in hotels away from their families for a number of weeks to help limit the risk of them becoming infected with coronavirus. With 92 matches in the Premier League season still to be played, players could have little preparatory time to work on their fitness in group training before being rushed back into playing twice a week.

FIFA have proposed increasing the number of substitutes allowed per side from three to five to also lessen the risk of fatigue and injuries for players on their return. "Safety has to be paramount," PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor told the BBC. "We don't know the future. What we do know is what propositions have been put, what ideas have been put, the possibility of having more substitutes, games possibly not being the full 45 minutes each way.

"There's talks of neutral stadiums. There's been lots of things being put forward. "Try and wait and see what the proposals are, and then have the courtesy to let the managers and coaches and players also assimilate all those and come to a considered view." The Premier League's "Project Restart" has been met with some resistance over plans for all remaining games to take place at up to 10 neutral venues.

The remaining matches would need to be played behind closed doors, but there are fears fans could congregate around stadiums. Some top-flight clubs have argued that under those circumstances there should be no relegation as the sporting integrity of the competition is compromised. However, chairman of the English Football League (EFL) Rick Parry said denying promotion to three Championship clubs would end up in legal battles.

"The lawyers are going to get wealthy if that happens," Parry told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee on Tuesday. "There would be a degree of outrage from a number of clubs in our Championship, and it would be a breach of the tripartite agreement. "The safe answer is that it would get very messy. Our expectation is there would be three clubs promoted from the Championship."

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Over the years Ajinkya Rahane has faced several bowlers on different surfaces across the globe, but playing against England speedster James Anderson in his home country has been the most challenging task for the India Test vice-captain. While insisting that every bowler in international cricket is challenging, facing Anderson in English conditions was the toughest for Rahane by his own admission.

"(But) especially talking about one particular bowler - James Anderson in England is really challenging. He knows the conditions well. He (Anderson) is the one," said Rahane on an Instachat live chat orgainsed by his employer 'Indian Oil' on Tuesday. Rahane, who has amassed over 4000 runs in Test cricket and has a century in England, the West Indies apart from India, emphasised on the need to be mentally fit during the coronavirus-forced lockdown period.

"(At) this point of time, it is important to be positive mentally. Mentally, I'm visualising my cricketing stuff, batting. As an international athlete, cricketer, it is important to be mentally fit," said Rahane, who revealed that he is a Black belt holder judoka. Sporting activities across the globe, including cricket has come to a grinding halt because of the pandemic. Even this year's cash-rich Indian Premier League has been postponed indefinitely due to the deadly disease, which has claimed nearly 1,78,000 lives globally and more than 640 in India.

Even though he is disturbed by the suffering of people, Rahane looked at the positive side of the lockdown. "First of all, definitely this is a sad thing, which is happening. But, looking at the positive side, I'm getting time to spend with my daughter and family. My daughter is six-and-a-half months old, I'm lucky to be with her," the right-handed batsman said. He also said that batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and tennis ace Roger Federer are his role models and meeting the multiple-time Grandslam champion at the 2015 Australian Open was a fanboy moment for him.

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