Kevin Pietersen has claimed that people in English cricket are jealous of the Indian Premier League.

Eoin Morgan and Pietersen are the only two current England internationals competing in this year's competition and the Delhi Daredevils' batsman believes that jealousy may be the reason for England's negative attitude towards the T20 tournament.

Pietersen said: "The IPL is very much struggling to find acceptance back home.

"It saddens me because I have had an amazing time at the IPL.

"It's down to a lot of jealousy I think, which is sad. It saddens me, all the negative publicity the IPL gets in the [UK] media, I don't know why."

Delhi Daredevils beat Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday with Pietersen scoring an unbeaten 43.