Over this year’s Big Bash League, I have grown in admiration for Kevin Pietersen. He has been more open, honest and less arrogant than we have ever seen before.
Instead of seeing the villain that causes havoc in the dressing room and is rude to media in airports, we have seen a man that is enjoying his cricket and enjoying the people he is playing with, while also being much more friendly to the media and to the Australian public.
In his tell all interview with Ricky Ponting and Mark Howard on Monday night’s Big Bash game between the Renegades and the Heat, KP opened up about the issues he had with past coach Andy Flower, saying he had poor man management skills.
KP also suggested in a roundabout sort of way that the players he had issues with were Graeme Swann, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook and Matt Prior, all of whom are now gone from the ODI side, and only Cook remains in the Test side with any certainty around his position.
Pietersen also said that most of the players in the World Cup squad are guys he gets on well with, and says he gets phone calls from some of them asking for advice. Pietersen said that, more than anything, he wants to play cricket for England.
But would you give him another chance?
The reality is that Pietersen will never play for England again. In Monday’s Big Bash match David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd suggested that while KP is in the best XI “I have a better chance of playing for England than Kevin.”
And with the current English board this seems to be true. In December English national selector James Whitaker stated that “there is no way Kevin will play cricket for England again”, and ECB managing director Paul Downton said that “Kevin has burnt all his bridges.”
But if Kevin Pietersen had played for Australia, would he be in this same situation?. This is all hypothetical, but historically Australian Cricket has taken much more risks in terms of selecting players that were characters and could cause disruption in the dressing room.
Our greatest ever bowler, Shane Warne, isn’t too dissimilar to Kevin Pietersen. He too caused issues in the dressing room and didn’t get on with everyone, Warnie could have easily been cast aside by Cricket Australia for causing disruption in the dressing room.
The big difference between Warne and KP is how they were managed, Warne played under strong leaders and great man managers in Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. This strong leadership kept the team together and kept Warne in line.
KP mentioned in his interview that the best captain he played under was Michael Vaughan, who was a much stronger character than the likes of Strauss and Cook who skippered the side when his relationship with the English side worsened.
It seems that had Pietersen been in the Australian system he may still be playing international cricket right now.
But even though it seems impossible, should Kevin Pietersen be playing in the World Cup?
He is certainly in England’s best XI and has shown his class in the BBL to be in the top five runscorers.
Most of his old sparring partners in Swann, Cook, Strauss, Prior and Flower are gone, and it is a new look England side that would probably welcome Kevin back into the dressing room.
He remains a world-class player, and it is a pity that we won’t get to see one of the worlds premier batsmen in full flight in the biggest tournament in cricket.
Hopefully for cricket’s sake Kevin Pietersen plays international cricket again.
So put yourself in the English selectors’ shoes, would you pick Kevin Pietersen in the World Cup Squad?
Disco
Guest
But not half the human being.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Should Kevin Pietersen be playing in the World Cup? Absolutely! He is a much better player than quite a few in that squad. Is Kevin Pietersen an a trouble maker? Absolutely Yes! But part of playing in a team is you accept everyone for who they are and you manage them accordingly. Kevin Pietersen was a 100% scape boat for the Ashes series. He was the only batsmen who remotely performed to an acceptable level. The ECB purposely put Moore back in charge to ensure Pietersen had no chance of being back in the English set up. If they had of given the job to a better credential or recently performed coach, Pietersen would still be in the side. He's clearly still a better batsmen than even the new captain Morgan!
Bobbo7
Guest
Spot on Dougie - the text saga was enough to sake him. He has the Warne complex - I can do not worng and everything is justified. While he is a gun bat England have a good side without him. If England play to potential during the WC they might do ok - they some come quailty players and some big hitters
Larney
Guest
True but they didn't sack him for that. They accepted it and he continued to play. Instead he was the scapegoat for the Ashes loss.
Pumping Dougie
Guest
I don't care how drunk or frustrated or angry he was ... any man who sends a text to the opposition team on the eve of a match outlining how to dismiss each of his teammates should be sacked on the spot for good and ostracised by everyone in the team forever. He's obviously a complete as*hole but he's intelligent enough to manipulate the media and get people feeling sorry for him - a bit like Jason Akermanis. Strauss on the other hand, always seemed like a sensible, decent, honourable, intelligent bloke with good leadership skills. KP shouldn't blame others for his indescretions with team harmony by saying they had bad man-management skills - he's just too hard to manage! He should never have been allowed back into the English team. He's not even English. Stuff him.
JB
Guest
You carefully omit that Pietersen said the player he admired the most was Hansie Cronje. Are you effing kidding me? KP, like his hero, is toxic.
Brian
Guest
is he available for South Africa?
JimmyB
Guest
Yeah I do think his cheeky chappy persona is a front, his fawning over everything Australian is designed to create sympathy and to gain future employment IMO. It also suits the Aussies to a certain extent to keep going over and over things with Pietersen in the comm box or when he's wired up in the field, because he seems more than happy to play along and offer sound bites which keep him in the news and relevant. It would suit Aaustralian cricket just fine if this KP saga dragged on and on into the next English summer. I don't doubt that he's enjoying his cricket though, the Big Bash has been great entertainment and I should imagine great fun to play in. I'd love to know who these young England cricketers are that are allegedly texting and ringing him for advice.
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
It seems the only people who think KP shouldn't be playing for England are the England selectors.
Craig Watson
Guest
JimmyB: So his little tete a tete with Ricky Ponting on the BBL the other nite was all a front.. a sham. Well he certainly pulled the wool over this Aussies's eyes..big time. By the time Punter had finished grilling him about his book, KP had me eating out of his hands. Thanks KP..never did like Afrikaans blokes.
JimmyB
Guest
Josh, I don't think anyone's covered themselves in glory during this ongoing episode, including the ECB. I'm not sure that Swann has got off scot free as such, he's gone down a great deal in a lot of people's estimations, not least in the way in which he retired. Mind you, the last Ashes series was a cluster f*** of epic proportions from an England point of view, just about everything that could go wrong, did.
josh
Roar Rookie
Maybe... KP hit the nail on the head with representative teams, coaching and captaining is as much about man management than anything else. I don't think you could whole heartedly say that the ECB have been the best in this regard. Then there are the other fair points KP raises, Graeme Swann releases a tell all book, gets off for being a bit of a lad. KP does essentially the same, albeit with a longer list and he's a villian...
JimmyB
Guest
As an England fan I would like to see KP playing for England, however I don't have to share a dressing room with him. He certainly has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of a good proportion of the Aussie cricketing fraternity, however it seems to me that he is on what politicians call a 'charm offensive'. It should be noted that KP has caused problems in every dressing room he's ever been in, going all the way back to South Africa. Are they all wrong?