Kevin Pietersen has revealed how he has leaned on his wife Jessica's experience of life in the public eye to deal with the extra pressures of being England's new captain.

The 28-year-old Hampshire batsman was appointed as England's captain just four weeks ago after Test skipper Michael Vaughan and one-day chief Paul Collingwood stepped down simultaneously having both struggled to cope with the intense pressures of the job.

He has handled the elevation in status admirably, guiding England to a final-Test victory at The Oval and four successive wins in the NatWest Series against South Africa which puts his side in sight of a potential series whitewash at Cardiff on Wednesday.

But behind the calm and confident leadership he has displayed on the pitch, Pietersen has revealed how he has turned regularly for advice to wife Jessica, a former member of pop group Liberty X.

"I'm very fortunate that I have a wife who has been in the spotlight for a lot longer than I have," explained Pietersen.

"She had seven or eight years of a very successful music career and I can go home and she can talk to me about stuff and we can chuck ideas around together and I know Colly didn't have that.

"It's very important to be able to speak to her about stuff and she just comes off a different wavelength completely. She gives me different ideas and so much help and advice.

"When you're in the music industry you're under the pump all day and every day and you have a lot harder and tougher days travelling the world.

"She did it for eight years and some of the days she's told me about and some of the stuff they've done was unbelievable - far worse than my sort of schedules.

"She has been brilliant for me to talk to and I know I have that extra advice at home, which is great."

Pietersen's revelations follows Vaughan's emotional resignation speech, when he admitted he had begun changing as a person at home because of the pressures, while Collingwood claimed he had struggled to switch off during his year as one-day captain and it had begun to affect his Test form.

The new captain insists he is still enjoying the job, but will take the first opportunity - probably shortly after Wednesday's final match of the one-day series - to jet off on holiday and take advantage of the Champions Trophy being postponed for a year because of security fears in Pakistan.

"I try my hardest to get a really good approach to time off, which helps," said Pietersen, talking at a touch rugby session involving England players Alastair Cook, Graeme Swann and Luke Wright and several members of the Cardiff Blues and Ospreys rugby union teams organised by sponsors Vodafone.

"As soon as I finish on Wednesday that will be it, I'll be gone. I'll be in the country for four or five days and then I'll be away for a long time spending time with my wife and getting away from it all - it's come as a real blessing in disguise the cancellation of the Champions Trophy.

"The mobile phone never stops and I can see why most people only last in this job for four or five years because of the pressures in this country.

"They are huge, it's one of the toughest jobs to do in this country.

"I got told that when I took it over and I'm starting to realise that with everything that's going on but when you're winning it's not as hard - when you start losing I bet it gets really difficult."

Knowing the huge expectations also placed on the captain of India as he prepares to lead his first overseas tour there in November, Pietersen added: "I think the job as captain of India and England are definitely on a par.

"When you get to Australia their media pretty much looks after their team and I know here and in India you're under the pump every single day."

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