World Cup will be Pietersen''s ODI swansong: Report

London, Feb 12 (PTI) Top England batsman Kevin Pietersenhas decided to quit one-day cricket after the World Cupstarting in the subcontinent next week to prolong his Test andTwenty20 career, a report said today.

Pietersen also wants to spend more time with his familyand intends to step down from what he sees as the leastimportant form of the game, a report in the ''Daily Mail''tabloid said.

If he gives up the 50-over game, Pietersen may lose hiscentral England contract but will be able to play more oftenfor his new county Surrey and in the Indian Premier Leaguealso, the newspaper said.

Pietersen''s appetite for 50-over cricket has been on thewane since he was sacked as England captain in 2009 and thensuffered a serious achilles injury, as demonstrated by hisdismal record in ODIs over the last two years.

He had criticised England schedule this winter as badlythought-out as most of the top players had been out on tourfor five months and will depart for Bangladesh today for theWorld Cup after only getting home from the ODI series inAustralia four days ago.

"Our schedule has been ridiculous going into this WorldCup and it is probably why England teams have not done well inpast World Cups," he had said.

Pietersen, however, leaves himself open to accusations ofdisloyalty as he will continue to make himself available forthe Indian Premier League and will spend around four weeksplaying for the Deccan Chargers on a 375,000 pound sterlingcontract as soon as the World Cup ends.

The 30-year-old''s argument is simply that the money istoo good to turn down for a relatively short time away fromhome and that his brush with a possible career-ending injuryin 2009 has made him want to cash in on the IPL for as long ashe can.

England play warm-up games next week against Canada andPakistan in Dhaka ahead of their first World Cup game againstthe Netherlands in Nagpur on February 22.

Pietersen has scored 3,517 runs from 110 ODIs aftermaking his debut in November 2004 at an average of 41.37. Hehas scored seven hundreds and 21 fifties.