England captain Andrew Strauss confirmed that batsman Kevin Pietersen was denied permission to leave the team's troubled tour to the West Indies to visit home.

Pietersen, who was stripped of the captaincy in January over a falling-out with former coach Peter Moores, had asked a month ago to take a 48-hour break between the drawn third and fourth Tests.

Bad precedent

"The permission wasn't granted because we're on a cricket tour and it sets a bad precedent if people can go home during cricket tours," Strauss said Sunday. "He understood that fully and it wasn't an issue by any means and he just got on with it."

Strauss added that there had been no problems between him and his predecessor as captain during a tour on which England lost the Test series and are even at 2-2 in the one-dayers with one match to play.

"He's been very supportive all the tour," Strauss said. "He's been very professional in the way he's prepared himself."

Pietersen has appeared unhappy throughout the near three-month tour. In a column he writes for a Sunday newspaper, he said that the current England squad was a "pretty damn lonely place to be".

"It's not worth dwelling on his comments too much and now we move to St Lucia," Strauss said. "It's over. I had a chat with him about it and we move on from there."