England batsman Kevin Pietersen has described Allen Stanford as 'a sleazebag' - and insists the end of the team's lucrative partnership with the American is 'not a bad thing'.
The England and Wales Cricket Board decided to sever all ties with Stanford followed the charges levelled at him on Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in his native America.
It accuses the financier of masterminding a fraud totalling $9.2 billion in value.
England players will lose out financially after the collapse of the lucrative Twenty20 deal but Pietersen is not unhappy about the end of the relationship.
'Stanford was a sleazebag. I was very uncomfortable with the whole Stanford thing,' he told the News of the World.
Pietersen had a deal with Stanford to promote the infamous winner-takes-all clash between England and the Stanford Superstars in November last year, which ended in an embarrassing defeat for England.
He said: 'It was not that I was captain at the time, it was the uncomfortable situation of everybody thinking the England team had been sold.
'With the financial state of the world, people were talking about money instead of cricket.
'Those kind of things just didn't seem right to me, so it's not a bad thing we are not going to have that tournament any more.
'I was an ambassador for Stanford - a player face - but that contract has gone.'
Collier refusing to stand down
Meanwhile, ECB chief executive David Collier has said will not resign over the Stanford scandal.
Collier and ECB chairman Giles Clarke have come under fire in the media and from within the game over English cricket's association with Stanford.
Collier told BBC Radio Five that he 'had discussed his position' but would not resign.
'We went through all the correct procedures and we correctly signed off the procedures,' Collier said. 'I feel we couldn't have done more. I feel I have more to offer the game and I want to see that through.'
On Friday the ECB said all dealings with Stanford had been terminated, meaning there would be no repeat of the controversial $20 million winner-takes-all Twenty20 match held in Antigua.
This year's Stanford-sponsored quadrangular Twenty20 series, which had been scheduled to begin at Lord's in May, has also been scrapped.
Stanford, who has involvement in many sports, has been charged with defrauding investors around the world in a civil lawsuit by US financial regulators, although he faces no criminal charges.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
