Craig Kieswetter has claimed the England dressing room developed cliques during his time as their limited-overs wicketkeeper, saying players from a South African background were the butt of jokes by the homegrown contingent.

'It wasn't just us competing against the opposition,' said the Johannesburg-born Kieswetter, who retired recently because of a serious eye injury, but played in 46 one-day and 25 Twenty20 internationals between 2010 and 2013.

'There was a sense that some of us were competing against one another.'

Craig Kieswetter has claimed the England dressing room developed cliques while he was a member

Kieswetter claims players from a South African background were joked about by the homegrown players

'By the time we were No 1 in the world, it was a very different dressing-room. Success changed people. Cliques developed. There were jokes made in the dressing-room if you had a South African background. When we warmed up in training, we were split into sides: South Africans v English.'

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Kieswetter – who was man of the match as England won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean in 2010 – said: 'It created an unnecessary divide, a sense of them and us.