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Former England bowler Steve Harmison says 'the ship has sailed' with regards to a return to the national team for batsman Kevin Pietersen, and England need to build for their long-term future.

Pietersen, sacked in February 2014, has joined Surrey in a bid to win back his England place after encouragement from new English cricket boss Colin Graves.

But Harmison says a recall wouldn't be the right thing.

"You'll not get a bigger champion of Kevin Pietersen than Steve Harmison. He's the best player to have ever played the game in this country, he's an unbelievable talent but that ship has sailed.

"We've got to get away from this Pietersen question.

"We're looking at 2019 to build towards a World Cup. Is he going to be there? Probably not.

"I would love to see KP play for England again but we have a batting line-up, especially in Test cricket, of Ballance at three - who had a fantastic year - Root and Bell who are arguably technically our best players. There's a position for Stokes and Ali at six and eight with Buttler at seven. That is a very young, a very exciting group going forward in test cricket and I don't think we should be looking to break that up.

"We've got a settled side that we're building in Test matches and we've got to stick to that. As much as I'd like to see Kevin come back and play I just don't think it'd be the right thing," Harmison added.

This clip is from 5 live sport, Sunday 29 March 2015.

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