KP might regret early retirement - Flower

England coach Andy Flower hopes Kevin Pietersen will not regret his decision to retire from one-day cricket at the end of his career.

Pietersen called time on his 50-over career on May 31 as he now wants to concentrate on playing Test cricket and Twenty20. But England's selection criteria insists that players are not allowed to pick and choose which one-day format they play in and must commit to both shortened versions of the game or none at all. That means that the South African-born batsman will not be in the side as England try to defend their World T20 title in Sri Lanka later this year. There had been rumours that he was on the verge of quitting ODI cricket for some time but the Surrey man had always laughed them off and Flower hopes that, now it is all over at one-day level, he has no regrets later in life. "I just thought that, after you've retired from sport and you look back at your career, he might think 'crikey, I wish I'd taken part in more World Cups' - and helped win the 2015 World Cup with England'," he said. "They are great memories, and I think it's a little sad he won't get those opportunities any more." Pietersen cited player burn-out as his main reason for retiring from the one-dayers but Flower has made it clear that the England selectors had already decided to give him some time off this summer ahead of bigger things to follow. "Kevin was due to be rested for this one-day series with the West Indies, so that would have been the first part of it," he added. "But I don't think resting him for the Australian one-day series and South African one-day series was an option."