England spinner Graeme Swann has revealed he has been sent death threats via Twitter in the wake of his side's one-day hammering in India.
Following a summer of domination over the Indians, England went down 5-0 to the same opponents on the sub-continent and Swann unbeaten with the bat as 10 wickets were lost for just 47 runs in Tuesday's final game - has been in the firing line.
He told The Sun: "Although I don't condone death threats on Twitter, I could almost understand it when I had a couple of hundred people threatening all manner of retribution after Tuesday's match.
"Not everyone in cyberworld has a perspective - after all, it is only a game of cricket. But you can almost understand why people get wound up.
"It can't be easy to watch us, not just losing but losing the way we did."
Horror
Meanwhile, Swann has refuted claims that his autobiography, in which he criticised the leadership skills of his team-mate and former captain Kevin Pietersen, had anything to do with the series results.
"England have endured a horror month but I can state right now it has nothing to do with what I wrote about Kevin Pietersen in my book," Swann, who will lead England in Saturday's one-off Twenty20 international, added.
"People have claimed my observation that KP is not a natural leader and should not have captained England has caused dressing-room divisions and a breakdown in team spirit.
"Well, anybody who thinks that does not know this England team.
"The reason we lost the one-day series 5-0 to India is because we've been outplayed in conditions which suit the home team. No excuses, we've been hammered.
"As soon as I serialised my autobiography, I spoke to Kevin and explained exactly what I'd written, why I'd written it and that it was not intended as a personal attack on him.
"He accepted that and we shook hands. My relationship with Kevin is exactly the same now as before the book was published."
