Test cricket beckoned with the 2005 Ashes the following summer: Pietersen's selection ahead of Graham Thorpe representing the toughest selectorial decision of early summer. He went on to reach 1000 one-day runs in just 21 innings - equalling Viv Richards' record. A subsequent tour of South Africa was more daunting, but he produced three audacious centuries in the series, his unbeaten 100 in 69 balls becoming England's quickest ODI hundred. Pietersen averaged 104 in England's 4-0 victory.
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His England career began in a low-key one-day series in Zimbabwe in 2004 when Andrew Flintoff was "rested" after expressing moral misgivings about the political regime of Robert Mugabe. He signed for Hampshire, where he remained until 2010, at which point he decamped to Surrey to be close to his Chelsea home, but by then his county appearances had long become sporadic. He joined Nottinghamshire in 2000, attracted by the chance to work with Clive Rice, the county's coach and a former South Africa allrounder, but left at the end of the 2003 season after Nottinghamshire were relegated, unhappy with the standard of the Trent Bridge pitches and expressed his feelings strongly enough for the captain, Jason Gallian, to fling his kit out of the dressing room window. Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg to an Afrikaner father, Jannie, and an English mother, Penny, and abandoned South Africa cricket as a teenager in protest against the racial quota system which he felt was unfairly restricting his opportunities at KwaZulu Natal. He was dropped for the final Test at The Oval and omitted from World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, England predictable struggling in his absence. The ECB regarded the matter as an unacceptable display of player power. Pietersen's frustration had a disruptive effect on England's summer Test series against South Africa. Their differences simmered throughout a troubled tour of India and when the rift became public Pietersen was forced to resign early in the New Year with a disenchanted Moores sacked on the same day.Īnother dispute arose in May 2012 when Pietersen, agitating for the freedom to play for longer in the Indian Premier League - where his popularity was unquestioned - briefly announced his retirement from all forms of limited-overs international cricket. The English media, which has at times been vitriolic - not to say personal - about his rebellious streak has generally recognised that he has few peers.Īn attempt to introduce him into the inner sanctum, by appointing him England captain in August 2008, lasted only five months as his relationship with the coach, Peter Moores, was uncomfortable from the outset. But his celebrity status, individualistic streak and outspoken ways often grated with the England cricket authorities who prefer their star names to be more malleable and conservative.
He had no choice but to commit himself to the life of a T20 specialist.įor many England cricket fans, no name sparks more excitement. After more than nine years and many controversies, Pietersen's England career was at an end, a fact he wrestled with interminably: accepting it one day, holding out hope of a miraculous return the next. But Pietersen's ability to command attention on the field has been matched only by his ability to divide opinion off it. In 2013, he became the highest England run-scorer in all international forms of the game combined. His 8,181 Test runs at 47.28 in 104 Tests had few rivals in England's history and his record in limited-overs cricket was also outstanding. A brazen belief in his own ability, moments of outrageous unorthodoxy and, at times, a surprising vulnerability on and off the field have all combined to give him great box-office appeal.
His flamboyant strokeplay was at the heart of many of England's finest performances for a decade. Whatever view you held, Pietersen deserved to be recognised as one of the most captivating cricketers to pull on an England shirt. When he was unceremoniously dumped from England's set up early in 2014, with lawyers at the ready on all sides, he was presented by those in authority as an egotistical individualist whose reluctance to respect those in charge forever undermined attempts to build a strong team ethic. Few cricketers have divided opinion like Kevin Pietersen.
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