'Absolute clown': Cops call out Kevin Pietersen over virus tweet

Victoria Police have taken to Twitter to refute an absolutely bizarre coronavirus claim from former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen.

With regional Victoria joining Melbourne and the rest of NSW in lockdown as of Saturday morning, the outbreaks of the coronavirus have also lead to a raft of misinformation on social media.

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Pietersen evidently fell for such dodgy information on Friday night, sharing a debunked clip of a woman and her daughter being approached by nurses at a police station in Werribee.

It was falsely claimed that the video showed authorities forcibly removing the girl from her mother, saying the reason for doing so was because the girl had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Pietersen shared the video on Twitter, adding the caption “Shame on you @ScottMorrisonMP! This is absolutely DISGUSTING!!!!!”.

Victoria Police were having none of it though, replying directly to Pietersen saying the claims in the video were false.

"Victoria Police can confirm this is inaccurate," they replied.

"This vision was in no way related to Covid/vaccinations or testing. For the privacy of those involved, we will not be providing any further details."

Some cricket fans were dismayed to see the former England star parroting obviously false information.

Despite having returned to England, Pietersen has become increasingly vocal about Australia's coronavirus restrictions amid the Delta outbreak.

He labelled Victorian premier Daniel Andrews an 'absolute clown' following the announcement of lockdown measures in the city last Monday.

Pietersen also gave Prime Minister Scott Morrison a serve, criticising the federal government's slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines.

“I feel so sorry for all my buddies in Australia. And all Australia!” Pietersen tweeted last week.

“Locking away a nation that wears flip-flops and loves the outdoors, is just WRONG! How’s their PM going? Horror vaccine roll out!”

From 1pm Saturday, the regional Victoria will enter the same restrictions as Melbourne with the sole exception of the curfew. Regional Victoria will not be under curfew, Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

"This virus has made its way from Sydney to New Zealand, for heaven's sake," he said.

"We therefore shouldn't be having any of these debates about whether the whole of country Victoria is at risk. The judgement of our public health experts is that it should be a statewide lockdown.”

ECB 'confident' Ashes tour will go ahead

The England and Wales Cricket Board is "very confident" this year's Ashes series will go ahead as planned despite ongoing negotiations over COVID travel restrictions, according to chief executive Tom Harrison.

England players are concerned about the possibility of families being unable to join them on the trip given Australia's tight border controls, as well as the prospect of lengthy quarantines and restrictive bubble environments.

Talks involving the Professional Cricketers' Association have been ongoing for some time and, while Harrison admitted there were plenty of complications before a final green light could be given, he suggested the necessary exemptions would be attained.

"We are working very closely with Cricket Australia and I had my latest conversation with my counterpart at CA yesterday, we are speaking every few days on this matter," he said.

"All the right conversations are happening at government level in Australia, and we will be using our own diplomatic channels in the UK to ensure that the view of the players and the ECB (is heard).

"This is not players asking for anything unreasonable, these are very reasonable requests that we are asking the Australian government to give some leniency, frankly.

"It's going to be important for us to ensure that we can give comfort to players that their families are going to be able to be in Australia and that those conditions in which they are quarantined will be reasonable, enabling the players to be at their best in that Test series.

"It's a conversation that's going to take place over the next few weeks but I am very confident we will get to a place where we can fulfil our obligations to tour."

There have been whispers that some England players would be prepared to sit out the prestigious tour if loved ones were not permitted to travel, while others have advocated postponing the entire series by a year to allow away fans to be present.

With AAP

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