Pietersen: No Nonsense With Stanford's Cash - There's a Credit Crunch on

England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen has warned his players to be sensitive about their sudden wealth if they are successful in the $20m winners-take-all Stanford Series in Antigua on November 1. Each winning England player would receive $1m, which with changing exchange rates is more like £575,000 than the original estimate of about £500,000, a tidy sum in these recessionary times.

"This game has obviously come at a very difficult time in terms of what's happening in the world and I want 100% respect for that, so there won't be any nonsense happening in and around and after the game and I will be really angry if it does happen," Pietersen said. "It's simple. I respect everything that's happening. Friends of mine are struggling, really struggling. People have lost their jobs and stuff, and there's no way in the world I want anyone to carry on like a clown, win or lose."

There is a certain irony that these words should come from Pietersen, who has left Andrew Flintoff trailing as England's most high-profile cricketer. With his pop-star wife, fashionable clothes, various hairstyles and bling, he has become one of the world's leading celebrity cricketers. He can earn something approaching £500,000 as England captain and more than doubles that with his various endorsements. At the same time Pietersen has proved to be an outstanding captain in his brief time in charge and there is growing evidence of a new maturity on and off the field.

Celebrations would be appropriate in the event of victory but clearly any player who boasts that he has paid off his mortgage with his winnings will be viewed with a bleak eye by Pietersen. Last summer Graeme Swann said: "I am the world's worst person with money. I'd probably blow it all on a pink Ferrari."

Pietersen has already promised to donate some of his winnings to charity but will not be asking team-mates to follow his example. "I've got guys in the team who are older than me, more experienced than me and I'm nobody's financial adviser," he said. "People can do whatever they want to do. But, yes, I will be doing my bit."