Pietersen motivated by Ashes hurt

England want to "demolish" Australia in the next Ashes series, according to batting star Kevin Pietersen.

He told BBC Five Live's Sportsweek the team had responded positively to last winter's 5-0 defeat in Australia and their poor World Cup performance.

"Inside we're hurting and it's the same sort of pain we want to inflict on countries that tour England," he said.

"The way we're playing out cricket now is the way we want to play and the way we want to demolish Australia in 2009."

Pietersen, in particular, has been in inspired form in the current series against West Indies, making 438 runs so far at an average of 87, including a Test best score of 226.

And he credits new coach Peter Moores, who took over from Duncan Fletcher at the start of the summer, for instilling a new ruthlessness among the players.

"I think the best thing about England's performances this summer has been the fact they we've been out there at the West Indies throats...we've shown we're not that bad at cricket.

"The winter was really tough for us, playing against what is probably the greatest Australian team, but we've learnt our lessons, our batters are scoring big runs, our bowlers are taking wickets and we're not putting down too many catches - we're showing that killer instinct which is something we want to do," said Pietersen.

"we want to be mentally right, we want to be physically right and we want to keep asking questions, ball after ball, session after session. A team has to back down at some stage.

"It's something Mooresy is very keen on and as soon as you turn up at the ground you're in the right frame of mind, you've got positive energy, positive vibes in the dressing room.

"Positive energy breeds positive performances," he added.

Former England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tim Lamb told Sportsweek agreed that Moores had made a "promising start" as head coach.

Responding to Pietersen's comments, Lamb, now in charge of the Central Council of Physical Recreation, said "We showed what we could do in 2005 when we played at the top of our game and maybe the Australians didn't.

"I think English cricket is back on track but there is some gap to be made up between ourselves and the Australians. Let's hope for better things in a couple of years time."