Kevin Pietersen had first offered his resignation as captain after last month's drawn second Test against India in Mohali but he was advised to sleep over it before taking a final call, disclosed England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) vice-chairman Dennis Amiss.
"He mentioned resigning the captaincy in our discussions with him but we wanted him to go away and think about it while he was in South Africa [on holiday]," Amiss said.
"We said, 'Go away and think about it and we will resolve the situation as quickly as we can'," he was quoted as saying by the BBC Sport.
The South African-born batsman stepped down as England captain last week after leading the side in three Tests in his brief tenure of five months as he couldn't work with coach Peter Moores who was also sacked as a result of the row.
"Once the information was in the public domain that Kevin Pietersen didn't want Peter Moores as his coach, it was always going to be impossible to resolve amicably and the ECB board was put in an impossible position," Amiss said.
"It was felt that we wanted a clean piece of paper, we wanted to rebuild, we wanted a completely unified team and the board wanted that as well especially with all the important cricket we have got coming up."
Amiss, however, said Pietersen is a "marvellous, exciting" player whose future commitment is strongly welcomed.
"Kevin is very much part of the future. He's offered Andrew Strauss his backing, he hopes he will regain the England captaincy. He's got this will, this desire to do well in international cricket," the ex-England bat said.