Kevin Pietersen vows to make short work of winter test

However, Pietersen, who works at his game as hard as anybody, insists coach Peter Moores has come to the same conclusion.

"That was his [Moores's] first winter tour and I think we all realise it wasn't the right way to do things," said Pietersen. "And it won't happen this year."

England won their one-day series in Sri Lanka but lost the Test battle before Christmas then reversed those results in New Zealand at the start of this year.

"Playing for England you create that little switch you can turn on and turn off," said Pietersen, who stopped short of suggesting the tough training regime affected performances.

"But I just think it was a bit too much. However, that's done and dusted and we are just looking forward now."

England's winter begins with next week's Stanford Twenty20 games in Antigua. And if they beat the Stanford 'Superstars' on Saturday week then Pietersen and his players will be more than £500,000 a man better off.

They all insist, though, that the big cricket challenges will come elsewhere, with India top of the list.

"That's why we got together a couple of weeks ago to discuss plans and processes on how we are going to operate," said Pietersen. "We talked about what we did well against South Africa and what we want to do well abroad.

"I'm no fool. We've had some really good times in the last couple of months since I took over but this is going to be really hard. We might win some, we might lose some, but as long as the guys turn up as they did against South Africa with that pride and passion and wanting to win, wanting to get better, then I don't have any problems."

While England will be expected to win, and win well, in the Caribbean early next year, beating India away at Test or one-day level remains one of international cricket's toughest tasks.

But, as former Australia spinner Shane Warne was quick to point out recently, Pietersen and Co need to start putting together some series victories if they want to build up a head of steam before next summer's Ashes battle.

"I agree with him," said Pietersen. "The exciting thing about the winter is the challenge of India and how tough it's going to be. But we need to start winning a lot more games to go into the Ashes with momentum."