Before you read Kevin Pietersen was an enigmatic personality 2, please read part one here.
When England returned to India
Indians will always owe a debt of gratitude to KP. Why was it? We all remember the 2008 Mumbai attack. England had just finished the ODI series and then the attack happens. It was an unfamiliar situation. The English players were quite apprehensive and left after the ODI series. They were supposed to comeback for the Test series after Christmas but the Mumbai incident was too fresh on the minds of the England players. It was Pietersen who convinced his teammates and brought them back to India for the test series.
Indians will forever remember that with great gratitude. There were murmurs that he did that because he wanted to be in the good books of BCCI and the IPL had just got underway. Dissenters will say what they want to.
Pietersen does have his negatives too.
Pietersen and his infatuation with pedigree
KP was someone who always saw the pedigree of anyone who advises him as this excerpt from his autobiography shows.
“Rahul was a great and heroic Indian batsman in his day. He is also a genius at dealing with spin bowlers. Our conversations and emails were a private master class from a genuine guru,” Pietersen writes in the book.
“Rahul improved my cricket and helped me develop the way I think about the game. His generosity will stay with me always.”
Sure Dravid was a great batsman but that does not mean that the rest not so capable batsman must be valued less. This was the problem he had with his captain Strauss. It is onething to be with odds against your own team but it is completely different when you complain about your captain and the team to the opposition. What Pietersen did all those years ago was absolutely unforgivable. Yes, he was born in South Africa and lived for a substantial part of his formative years in that country and that he knew some of the South African players. None of this gave him the right to send text messages about his current team to the opponent. SA promptly leaked those messages thereby landing Pietersen in a situation from where he found it really difficult to comeback.
The English were quite magnanimous towards him. If they had decided to drop Pietersen for indiscipline forever, no one would have been surprised. Remember, he was recalled later.
He had once insulted Knight, the former England opener.
Can somebody please tell me how Knight has worked his way into the commentary box for Tests? Ridiculous.”
There were tweets against selectors as well, punctuated by swear words on occassion. None of these did a lot to help his status in the team.
Pietersen, captaincy, Moores
Pietersen’s worst moment of his career was his stint as captain. He claimed to have had quite a few ideas to improve English cricket but the way he went about it was all wrong. As mentioned above, he had a problem with the pedigree of Moores. Moores was not a successful player. In Kevin’s book, anyone who hasn’t played at the highest level, is not worthy of his attention. He wanted Moores gone at any cost. The ECB saw through his game plan and instead of following Kevin and removing Moores, they removed both of them. Kevin learned his lesson and he never ever captained England again.
KP’s autobiography
If you ever get hold of Kevin’s autobiography, please read it. It seems Kevin was determined to shoot himself on the foot. When he was permanently dropped from the team, he had a lot of grudge against a few players. Strauss, Anderson, Broad, Prior and the coach Andy Flower. He admits that he was following the IPL auction after he got out in one of the Test in Australia. Any coach or captain will never accept such indiscipline among their player. He goes on a tirade against Prior, Anderson and Broad and termed them as the axis of evil.
I read his autobiography and towards the end, I was convinced that for all the problems of Pietersen, no one is responsible but he himself.
Was Kevin a great player?
Well, he could have been. His ability with the bat was next to none. He was as talented as a Ricky Ponting or Dravid or Tendulkar or Kallis of his era. However, he finished with an average of 47 whereas all the others finished with more than 50. Ofcourse, average does not signify the greatness of a batsman but over the course of a career, it is a good enough marker to judge the quality of a cricketer.
His inconsistency was the main reason he could not be considered a great. One innings he plays a blazing knock and in the very next, he ends up with a timid innings. The number of games where his runs made a difference were few and far between. Michael Vaughan, Kevin’s first captain, says that Kevin always feels the need to be recognised. He must be constantly reminded that he was the best player and he could transform any game.
One of the qualities of a great player is that they do not need to be reminded every now and then. They know how to take responsibility and transform the game. Based on Vaughan’s comment, it certainly looks like Kevin lacked on that front. If only Kevin’s career had progressed towards its logical end, could he have increased that average to over 50? We will never know but based on his earlier games, it will be safe to assume that it would not have.
Pietersen’s request to ECB to allow him to play Tests & T20 only
Things have changed at the ECB. Now, a Ben Stokes can announce retirement from ODI but continue to play in Tests and T20s. This was exactly the request that Kevin placed on the ECB. At a time when the ECB wanted to maintain a couple of teams, one for Tests and the other for ODIs and T20s, ECB were surprised by Kevin’s request. He was told that he either play both ODI and T20 or none of them. In hindsight, perhaps, the ECB were hasty in their decision. They could have granted his wish which would have reduced his animosity towards the board a great deal.
Wrapping up Kevin Pietersen was an enigmatic personality 2
“It is the time to appreciate what he did in an England shirt. He was a magnificent player, the best England player I played with and an unbelievable talent. We have to remember the special days and he should be happy and comfortable with what he has achieved.”
Strauss has come around to the fact that KP did play some seriously match winning knocks for England. If only he had this revelation all those years ago, a few more years of Kevin magic could have been witnessed.
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