The English cricket board has warned Kevin Pietersen to remain away from meeting Lalit Modi after the duo had met earlier this week.

Modi is the suspended IPL chairman and has charges of fraud against him. He has also been accused by the ECB chief, Giles Clarke of meeting up with the chiefs of some of the counties and trying to form a parallel T20 league in England.

Earlier, the ECB had asked the county heads to not meet up with Modi till the cases against him are resolved. With the warning to Pietersen, it is obvious that the ECB wants to extend the same to the cricketers as well. Pietersen is reported to have told the ECB that he had only met an old friend for a beer.

This is the second controversy that Pietersen has been embroiled in this week. Earlier, he was dumped by his county Hampshire after he had been vocal about changing loyalties at the end of the season. Hampshire refused to select him for the FP t20 finals day and that means that Pietersen is left without any county. The ECB rules say that for a cricketer to be eligible to play for England, he needs to be contracted to a county.

Pietersen has also been struggling with his batting form, having only recovered a little by scoring an 80 in the second Test against Test. It was a shoddy display of batting though, as he was dropped thrice in the process.

England plays their third Test match against Pakistan at Oval from 18 August. They lead the four game series 2-0, with two matches to play. Blue Square offers 11/8 for a 4-0 whitewash, while a 3-0 scoreline is at 12/5 (Totesport). Ladbrokes offer 33/1 for Pakistan to win both the remaining games, while two successive draws are at 14/1 (Betfred)