Former captain Michael Vaughan feels Kevin Pietersen should not have been picked for England again after the 2012 text-gate scandal where he was accused of sending unsavoury messages about his skipper Andrew Strauss to the opposition team during course of a Test match.

Pietersen, an exceptionally talented batsman, was part of four Ashes series wins, including the watershed 2005 victory but later he fell out of the England set-up.

Midway through South Africa's 2012 tour of England, Pietersen was accused of sending text messages against Strauss to players in the rival change room.

The full content of those messages sent during the second Test in Leeds in August 2012 remains unknown. Some say the South African expat went as far as giving fast bowler Morne Morkel tips on how to get Strauss out.

"I've never seen 100 per cent clarification that that was the case, but if he did, I personally said at the time and have said it since, he shouldn't have ever played for England again," Vaughan was quoted as saying by foxsports.com.au.

"If an England player, doesn't matter who it is, (is) found to be texting the opposing international team how to get one of your own players out I don't think he should have played for England again," said Vaughan, one of the most successful England captains.

Pietersen was dropped from the England squad for the third Test in Lord's against South Africa but he returned for the tour of India later in 2012 and went on to play 16 more Test before his retirement in 2014. He scored 8181 runs from 104 Tests.

"It had a huge effect on English cricket for a while and I still think it has a massive effect on a few individuals. I still think there are a few who have come out of this worse," Vaughan said.

England players were jealous of Pietersen's massive IPL contract

Vaughan has also claimed that many England players were jealous of their then team-mate Pietersen after the maverick batsman landed a "massive contract" in the Indian Premier League.

In 2009, Pietersen, now retired, became one of the highest paid IPL players when Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him for a whopping Rs 9.8 crore. But with the money came the jealousy of the team, according to Vaughan.

"I think there was a lot of jealousy. And the players will completely deny it now but I think there was at the time when Kevin was on a massive contract," Vaughan told.

Pietersen also had a major fallout with the then captain Andrew Strauss due to their differences with regards to the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) reluctance to allow participation in the IPL.

"It wasn't anything other than that Kev around that time wanted to go to the IPL. That's how it all started to blow up and that's when those factions came into play," he said.

According to Vaughan, Pietersen believed playing in the IPL with other top international players would help in the development of the ODI team.

"He was saying to the team he wanted to play because it would further the development of the one-day team and all the one-day players would get the chance to play there and improve their game," he added.

However, several members of the team felt Pietersen was only after the money.

"They deemed that he just wanted to go for the money. He was on a big contract while not many of the other players were even getting sniffed at," he said.

"It was very much Kevin against the team in terms of that one," he added.