Reintegration talks delayed as Kevin Pietersen beaten by the flight

The Kevin Pietersen saga took another twist on Monday when his 'reintegration' process was delayed by 24 hours by the cancellation of his flight from Johannesburg to London.

His British Airways flight was put back a day, resulting in him missing a meeting with a senior England player in London in the afternoon.

Pietersen has agreed to fly home for three days between matches for Delhi Daredevils in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in South Africa. It is seen as an important step in repairing relations with his England colleagues and management. He is due to hold a series of face-to-face meetings with senior players, coaches and captain as England weigh up whether to add him to the squad for the tour to India.

Pietersen is understood to be viewing this week as a crucial step back to playing international cricket but has been told this is not a rubberstamping process.

There have been positive comments from senior players over the past week but the outcome of this week's meetings will be key.

England will fly to Dubai a week on Thursday for a training camp before arriving in Mumbai four days later.

If Delhi reach the final stages of the Champions League, Pietersen will face a dilemma. He either stays loyal to his franchise and remains in South Africa to help them win a tournament with a prize of $2.5?million or joins up with England in Dubai.

David Collier, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was forced into a climbdown yesterday after accusing the South African players of provoking Pietersen into the BlackBerry exchanges which led to his estrangement with England.

Collier had told the BBC that Pietersen was responding to messages from South African players when he made inappropriate comments about Andrew Strauss. Collier hinted that Pietersen fell for a trap. "I think that is sadly some of the ways of modern sport," he said. It was that implication which angered Cricket South Africa.

Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, is believed to have smoothed over relations with the South African board at an International Cricket Council meeting last week.

The apology was embarrassing for Collier, who earlier this year nearly left the ECB for a similar role at the ICC before losing out to Dave Richardson. But Collier's position is not believed to be under threat, as his comments were out of character.

In the statement Collier and the ECB accepted the South African board and players have the "highest ethical standards of behaviour" but that they disagreed on the sequence of events - in other words if it was Pietersen who started the exchange.

The statement said: "Cricket South Africa has made clear to ECB that the electronic messages were not part of any initiative or plan to undermine the England team or players.

"ECB has unreservedly accepted that assurance and wishes to reiterate that it has no issue at all with CSA - or the Proteas players - on this matter and appreciates that the South African and England players follow the highest ethical standards of behaviour. Although the two boards do not agree on the sequence of events regarding any responses to messages between Kevin Pietersen and certain Proteas players, CSA and SACA accept Mr Collier's apology based upon his earlier utterances that the team may have acted in a way which was underhand.

"Both CSA and ECB regard this matter as now closed."