Marylebone Cricket Club apologised after exiled England batsman Kevin Pietersen spotted a member of the Lord's groundstaff dragging his feet across the pitch in the ongoing second Test with India on Saturday.

Pietersen made the incident public via his Instagram feed when he posted a video of groundstaff regular Shane Doherty walking up the pitch as he swept dust off the playing surface.

However, Doherty was not wearing spikes or studs when the incident took place during the lunch break, so any advantage to England's bowlers, with India batting in their second innings, would have been highly unlikely.

Nevertheless, Pietersen flagged up his tweet by saying: "UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!"

He had earlier written: "I cannot believe what I've just seen on TV from one of the ground staff!"

Meanwhile another former England captain in Michael Vaughan later tweeted the footage was, in his opinion, a "little sniffy".

But MCC, the owners of Lord's insisted nothing deliberately untoward had taken place at the north-west London ground.

"MCC admits a genuine, honest mistake — and there was no intent to damage the pitch," the club said in a statement.