Former England cricketer Jonathan Agnew has quit Twitter after being involved in an extraordinary spat with Kevin Pietersen’s wife Jessica Taylor following a controversial interview regarding Pietersen’s book earlier this week.

The BBC's cricket correspondent Agnew voiced his opinion that despite Pietersen’s image of being a strong, confident and brave individual, he was actually hiding the real him who is “an anxious, nervous character”. At the time, Agnew did not know that Pietersen was listening in from a BBC studio while the 54-year-old voiced his opinion on Tuesday’s Test Match Special.

After being informed that Pietersen was listening by interviewer Adrian Chiles, Agnew claims that the controversial text messages sent from Pietersen to members of the South African team had something to do with his axing, as well as the fake Twitter account that has been linked with members of his former team-mates.

Pietersen quickly took to the nearest microphone to reply: “Why was that Twitter account buried by the ECB, when they knew how it made me feel?”

He added: “And I’m off” before leaving the building.

Taylor was quick to defend her husband, before becoming embroiled in a back-and-forth row with Agnew over who had access to the fake Twitter account.

Taylor eventually ended the conversation with: “I'm not fighting anyone's battles. As a wife and mother I have every right to defend my family when I see fit. I make no apologies for that.”

Agnew then posted another tweet on Wednesday night to confirm he would no longer be using the social media site due to the level of abuse he had received after his comments.

“Almost did this last night, but will now. This is not what Twitter was when I joined. I will now leave it to the bullies and trolls. Shame,” wrote Agnew.