When Kevin Pietersen was sacked, there were many in England who were mystified. Kevin was the top scorer in that series though given the rotten performances of the rest, it wasn’t hard to achieve. Why was he singled out when Andy Flower, Gooch and Cook were equally culpable in the abject surrender? Was it based on one series or did it culminate in a series of events? As it turns out, this wasn’t based on one series. It was based on cricketing reasons and issues of discipline. It has been happening regularly with Pietersen. He was someone exceptionally gifted but with a huge ego problem. Boycott feels that England is to be blamed for allowing Kevin to play too many shots at inopportune moments, without worrying about consequences.
On other occasions, Kevin can blame only himself because of a lot of uncaring shots. He was also caught texting his South African teammates which resulted in his first sacking. Cook persuaded ECB to give Kevin one more. He lost his patience a year later and was instrumental in sacking KP.
When KP became the captain
Back in 2008, KP was made the captain after Michael Vaughan lost the series to South Africa and resigned. He started with a hundred and won the final Test but trouble was brewing. He had to work with the coach Peter Moores and the assistant coach Andy Flower. KP’s first tour as captain was to India which was held during the Mumbai terrorist attack. The English players returned to Dubai to decide their next course of action. It was Pietersen who persuaded the English players to return to India which created a lot of goodwill for him and the England team.
However, on the field, England didn’t fare well. They lost the Test series having set a target of 386 in the first Test at Chennai. After returning to England, he was asked for his opinion as to how to improve the English side. He suggested removing the coach Peter Moores and his assistant Andy Flower. It was a huge call to make. Pietersen, probably did not realise the repercussions that his suggestion would have in the near future. His suggestion was leaked to the press and everything broke down. Here was someone having just become the captain, wanting to eliminate both the coach and the assistant coach. Pietersen was away in South Africa with his family when the ECB chief, Hugh Morris called to tell him that both him and Moores were sacked. The captaincy was passed onto Andrew Strauss under whom and Andy Flower England won the Ashes.
KP knew that his chance of captaining England was gone.
KP’s exposure to huge income
A month later, he was picked for RCB in the IPL for 1.55 Million USD. Now, KP knew that he could earn vast sums of money in the IPL. However, his English commitments restricted his appearance in the IPL. He can only play for 3 weeks in a year which restricted his earnings. IPL needs a player to be available for the entire tournament to be paid the entire amount. KP wanted to play the entire IPL and come back to England when it suited him. His bosses did not like it. KP wanted to play only Test and T20 which ECB didn’t approve of either. He chose to retire from white-ball cricket altogether. It was probably a knee-jerk reaction.
The first banishment
In August of that year, he played a brilliant innings of 149 against South Africa but was caught sending text messages to the South Africans in which he was critical of Strauss and Flower for their management. ECB were furious and many wanted him out of the team forever. It was a stupid thing to do and there could not be any excuse for such poor behaviour. You do not ridicule your captain and the coach to the opposition. If England had sacked him over the texting issue, no one would have wondered and he was rightly sacked.
After weeks of discussion, he was selected in the squad but Strauss and Flower did not like it. They were opposed to Pietersen all along. Strauss was disgusted and he resigned. Cook became the captain. He wanted KP in the team because he knew that KP could win games on his own and Cook could cement his spot as captain. He was integrated and England was in India where he played a brilliant innings of 186. England went onto win the series. A picture was tweeted by Matt Prior in the dressing room with the sign “reintegration complete”. A year later, everything went downhill.
The Australia tour
KP can only blame himself for being sacked. Some of the shots he played on that Australian tour were horrendous. It was like he didn’t care about how the side was placed. The commentator Jonathan Agnew commented that we, ie., England, would like him to assess the situation and play accordingly. With the Ashes on the line, at the WACA, he hit the off-spinner Lyon for six over long-on. Clarke positioned a fielder on the boundary. In trying to repeat the shot, KP was caught by that same fielder. KP by then had played 100 Tests. One would expect the senior player to play more responsibly. Once the tour was over, a meeting was held to decide the future of Pietersen. Cook this time, did not support him and let the axe fall.
If it has been Vaughan captaining KP throughout his career, he would have been firm and would have guided him properly. Strauss, Giles and Cook are mild-mannered. The people running English cricket were fed up with KP’s mannerisms and they had enough. It was all over. One wonders whether in a few decades down the line, whether Pietersen will look back at his career and feel an opportunity missed. Pietersen’s career will go down as proof that you can be an individual in a team but you can’t just be an individual because it is a team game.