Hearing for Pietersen

England batsman Kevin Pietersen will face a disciplinary hearing over his petulant Twitter rant.

Pietersen used the social networking tool to rubbish the selection committee's decision to leave him out of England's squad to meet Pakistan in the forthcoming limited-overs matches.

He will now be hauled in front of an England & Wales Cricket Board disciplinary committee to address his imprudent comments.

The mercurial South African-born player apologised for the outburst, and later claimed that he believed his Twitter comments would only be viewed by a limited number of friends and family.

England coach Andy Flower has chosen to accept Pietersen's version of events.

"He says he made a bit of a mistake, and I'll take him at his word," Flower said.

"But still there'll be a disciplinary hearing about that, because we can't have situations like that happening."

Flower believes players can continue to use social networking devices, although the coach has no intention to start his own tweets.

"I don't quite see it myself. But if that's what they choose, we want to allow them the freedom to do that."

"But with that freedom comes responsibility, so they've got to use it responsibly. This is an example of not using it responsibly."

"Ideally, we'd like to leave them using it. Probably, after a couple of the latest incidents, we have to have a look at the guidelines along which they use that."