England coach Andy Flower has revealed that he tried on a number of occasions to stop Kevin Pietersen from turning his back on limited-overs cricket.

The 31-year-old batsman announced his retirement from all international one-day cricket a fortnight ago, citing a hectic schedule as the reason behind his decision.

"The backdrop to this is that he doesn't want to play one-day cricket anymore," Flower told BBC Sport. "When Kevin told me he wanted to retire from one-day cricket I must have had three or four subsequent meetings with him where I tried to dissuade him from doing so.

"I think it's really sad he won't be playing all three forms of the game. He's in incredible form, technically he's excellent.

"He can rest, it's not as if KP can't ever rest. We do rest him and if you look back at various series that's what we've done. He's also had significant chunks out with injury, it's not that he doesn't get a chance to rest."

Despite his retirement from limited-overs, the South African-born cricketer has insisted that he wants to continue to play in Twenty20 matches. However, England central contracts do not allow players to choose which forms of the game they compete in.