Kevin Pietersen says England were distracted in the build-up to their $20million showdown with the Stanford Superstars in Antigua, blaming their ten wicket defeat on a lack of focus.

England produced a lacklustre performance and were outplayed by the West Indies select side who took home $1m each after their crushing victory. However, Pietersen says a series of controversial incidents in the lead-up to the match, including Sir Allen Stanford being pictured flirting with the wives and girlfriends of the England players, caused the players to lose their focus.

"We shouldn't have got so much into talking about other things besides cricket," he said. "We've dived in feet first and come unstuck.

"We've learned that you have to concentrate 100 per cent on cricket. There are some fantastic cricketers in our dressing room and we have to get on with what we do best," he said.

"We haven't been concentrating on our cricket when we should be focusing on our game. There's been a lot of nonsense but we are going to have to buy into it a lot, lot more."

However, Pietersen admitted the Stanford side had more to gain from the victory.

He said: "There are some very happy guys here who are not as fortunate as us.

"When you know how under-privileged some of them are compared to us, and you see boys crying and mums and dads too it's fantastic for them."

Stanford, who bank-rolled the match, declared it a massive success.

"Let me say this, our cricket in the Caribbean is back." he said. "Three years ago we started an experiment to get young kids who were going elsewhere - American basketball, soccer - back into cricket and to reward the best players in the Caribbean for their professional skills.

"We're doing it, the results are here tonight, we will beat anybody in the world with this team. We are back, we're gonna take the world again and this programme is working."