Whether you knew him or not, whether you followed his career or not, he’ll always be considered as one of the most rebellious and uncontrollable cricketers of our time. The bad boy of cricket and the one who couldn’t be tamed by the England Cricket Board (ECB), which led to a very special international career coming to an end before time.
We’re talking about Kevin Peter Pietersen who was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal (South Africa) but played most of his professional cricket in and for England. Amidst plenty of controversies and career-threatening moments, Pietersen will always be remember as one of the most flamboyant and stylish batsmen in world cricket. However, did he deserve to be branded as the rebel and enemy of the ECB that he was made to look like?
No one will forget how he burst onto the scene and switch hit a legend of the game like Shane Warne into the stands on multiple occasions in a prestigious series like The Ashes. Having been a ‘KP’ fan all through his career, I strongly believed he was a victim of ECB politics for several years and he exposed most of these schemes and truths in Kevin Pietersen: The Autobiography, originally published in October 2014.
KP vs Andy Flower
The entire book talks about this player-coach relationship which went from bad to worse to disaster over the years and how KP always ended up on the wrong side of the public, media and ECB because he wouldn’t toe the line with Andy Flower, who well was the ‘company man’. Though his ways and methods weren’t right, there was no way he would end up on the wrong side of the ECB.
With over 11,000 international runs for Zimbabwe, KP initially thought the SA-born common bond would’ve worked well between the two but he couldn’t have been more wrong. KP describes Flower as a ‘Woodpecker’ – someone who grinds down players with constant team meetings even when not required, just to tick off his boxes; no real interactions or emotional relations.
Flower was called out for selling out KP and not taking care of the senior player’s schedule plenty of times but he had the backing of the ECB. The super self righteous board has often found itself in this position where players who aren’t disciplined (as per their definitions) don’t get to be a part of the English set up. In fact, Read Scoops spoke to Michael Carberry who also spoke much about the politicians that the ECB has been breeding over the years. See that full conversation here.
KP the mercenary?
He spent his entire career being labelled as a ‘mercenary’ because he supposedly put his monetary needs ahead of his national duties, choosing the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the England cricket team. The stand of the ECB at the time was that IPL was going to be the death of the traditional game of cricket and was all about the money, and nothing else.
While we do accept that the IPL is a super commercial tournament, it stands true that the ECB couldn’t digest the fact that the IPL grew leaps and bounds to become a globally accepted league, something that the English T20 Blast couldn’t achieve, though it began 5 years prior to the IPL. At the time of the launch of the IPL, KP was one of the best T20 batsmen in the world and was picked to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
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The chance to play against and share the dressing room with the best international players in the world. Chance to be a part of one of the best cricketing establishments in the world. And of course, the chance to earn the big bucks at the biggest stage. Surely, KP wasn’t going to deny himself the opportunity. ECB was always against IPL and KP became the scapegoat in this matter through the years.
Enemy of the ECB and enemy of his teammates in the dressing room too, because they were all sour (maybe because they themselves weren’t being picked in the IPL while KP was the highest paid player in the league?!) about his IPL contract. It’s weird though because today, almost every England limited overs cricketer plays in the IPL. Double standards from the board and the blokes, no?!
- KP couldn’t retire from a single form but Andy Flower could, citing workload (Ironically, the same thing KP mentioned)
- KP couldn’t retire from a single form but Stuart Broad and James Anderson could
- KP couldn’t send text messages to SA players but his teammates could make and operate a parody account
- KP had to make public apologies, but the rest never had to (regardless of the crime committed)
- KP was the ‘bad influence’ on the dressing room yet the other clique was regularly found out to be abusing the younger kids
KP Genius
One of the biggest reasons that made KP resent the English dressing room was the fact that there was a KP parody account being run on Twitter, created by a close friend of Stuart Broad’s, and rumoured to be operated by many within the dressing room including Broad, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan and others.
While some tweets were genuinely funny, many were derogatory and downright abusive, which was hurting KP during his years playing for England. It’s certainly not easy playing in a dressing room where you know half the players are constantly taking a piss at you behind your back. Eventually, the confession was made to Alec Stewart that a man named Richard Bailey created the account and it was deleted.
However, after claiming to have ‘thoroughly investigated’ the matter, the ECB shut out the issue soon enough and none of the players involved were penalized for the same, even though most of the tweets were clearly things that only those within the dressing room could’ve known about. Double standards again. One set of rules for KP and another set of rules for the others?!
‘Reintegration’
One of the best batsmen of the generation and KP always had to prove his loyalty to the side. He decided that playing for England was going to continue to be his main goal and hence, he agreed to ECB’s ‘reintegration’ process. Sadly, that was less of solving issues but more of KP being made to beg and plead for forgiveness from his teammates. Technically, should’ve been the other way around, right?
The dirty politics reminds us of how Bangladesh’s Shakib al Hasan was also made to kneel and beg for forgiveness from one of the top guns in the Board. So these guys are you top ambassadors of the game, and that’s how you treat them? That’s what they get in return?
While he did play the role of the entertainer and the showman, he was always tagged as the mercenary by the board and the English media, something that stuck with him through his career; also being tagged as the person who leaked tactical information to South Africa. Really guys?! The man has a tattoo of the 3 Lions on his body and has some of his top scores against South Africa too!
Since these issues with KP were never addressed, there could very well be bullying, groupism and might we even say racism happening in the England dressing room even today. They made KP apologize, they made him go through ‘reintegration’ and what not, yet those who ruled the roost continued to do so, without being warned or penalized.
It’s honestly no secret that the ECB didn’t like him. In 2010, England went on to become the champions of the world when they took down the ICC 2010 World T20, beating Australia in the final. In that series, Kevin Pietersen scored 248 runs in 6 games including 2 fifties, finishing as the second highest run scorer, only behind Mahela Jayawardene.
KP won the Player of the Tournament award in that series and 2 years later, the defending champs are knocked out of the 2012 World T20 in the group stage itself, this time without the services of Pietersen. Funnily enough, Pietersen was present in Sri Lanka or that tournament, in the commentary box. No, he wasn’t injured. He was fit, fine and wasn’t even out of form. That’s how blunt ECB was about not wanting him around!
Outcome?
Let’s look at the likes of the Priors and Swanns and Broads and Andersons, who enjoyed illustrious careers, some ending with glorious farewells while some still playing for the English side. Yet there are those like KP who had to end his career as a T20 freelancer, playing around the globe because the ECB was too proud to accept an honest cricketer like him into their ranks.
Maybe if he was a man like a Strauss or a Cook or a Flower who did what he was told to do by management and never stepped out of line, he could’ve had a longer and more successful career for England. Hell, he even could’ve been knighted like some of them were. Take a look at these numbers of highest run scorers for England in the longest format:
Insecurity? Jealously? We don’t know what it was but it was enough to keep away the man from the international circuit after 2014, someone who entertained crowds around the world and for the longest time remained England’s highest international run scorer across formats. We hope you liked this piece on the life and career of Pietersen and for more cricketing updates from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
