World Cup will be Pietersen's ODI swansong: Report

Top England batsman Kevin Pietersen has decided to quit One-Day cricket after the World Cup starting in the subcontinent next week to prolong his Test and Twenty20 career, a report said Saturday.

Pietersen also wants to spend more time with his family and intends to step down from what he sees as the least important form of the game, a report in the Daily Mail tabloid said.

If he gives up the 50-over game, Pietersen may lose his central England contract but will be able to play more often for his new county Surrey and in the Indian Premier League also, the newspaper said.

Pietersen's appetite for 50-over cricket has been on the wane since he was sacked as England captain in 2009 and then suffered a serious achilles injury, as demonstrated by his dismal record in ODIs over the last two years.

He had criticised England schedule this winter as badly thought-out as most of the top players had been out on tour for five months and will depart for Bangladesh on Saturday for the World Cup after only getting home from the ODI series in Australia four days ago.

"Our schedule has been ridiculous going into this World Cup and it is probably why England teams have not done well in past World Cups," he had said.

Pietersen, however, leaves himself open to accusations of disloyalty as he will continue to make himself available for the Indian Premier League and will spend around four weeks playing for the Deccan Chargers on a 375,000 pound sterling contract as soon as the World Cup ends.

The 30-year-old's argument is simply that the money is too good to turn down for a relatively short time away from home and that his brush with a possible career-ending injury in 2009 has made him want to cash in on the IPL for as long as he can.

England play warm-up games next week against Canada and Pakistan in Dhaka ahead of their first World Cup game against the Netherlands in Nagpur on February 22.

Pietersen has scored 3,517 runs from 110 ODIs after making his debut in November 2004 at an average of 41.37. He has scored seven hundreds and 21 fifties.