England Cricketer
Kevin
Pietersen's career has verged on the extraordinary at every turn. From
shunning the South African quota system, to returning to his homeland
with three ODI centuries and securing the Ashes with his maiden Test
ton. All that came within his first year as an England player, but that
was just the start. He quickly became the team's best batsman, and a
leading light in world cricket, consistently dominating attacks. His
transition from interloper to full Englishmen appeared to be complete
when he accepted the England captaincy following Michael Vaughan's
resignation and began with a string of wins against South Africa. But
his reign lasted barely five months and early in 2009 he resigned after
a very public row over the suitability of Peter Moores as coach. People
came to expect the mind-boggling from KP, but this caught everyone off
guard.
After a quiet debut
against Zimbabwe he was thrown in during the one-dayers against South
Africa in 2005. Undeterred by hostile receptions from the home crowds,
he announced his arrival - loudly, of course - with three centuries in
five innings, and in doing so demonstrated his peerless eye for the
ball and for making headlines, too. On reaching his maiden ton in the
second ODI at Bloemfontein, he kissed his badge with unreserved fervour
and afterwards announced his next ambition: getting a tattoo of three
lions and his England number. By the end of the series a crowd which
had turned their backs on Pietersen stood and applauded him.
Overlooked for two
Tests against Bangladesh, he made his Test debut against Australia at
Lord's of all places, and responded with a pair of hard-hitting fifties
in a losing cause. Six dropped catches in the series appeared to have
dented his brash confidence, but with the series at stake, he once
again showed his unswerving eye for the limelight by clubbing a
phenomenal 158 on the final day at The Oval, to secure the draw that
England needed for a first Ashes triumph in 18 years. First to
congratulate him on his feat was Shane Warne, his good friend and
captain at Hampshire, whom Pietersen had joined at the start of the
season after three eventful and fractious years at Nottinghamshire.
A hallmark of
Pietersen's batting is the complete confidence he has in his own
ability, best emphasised by a remarkable reverse-sweep for six off
Muttiah Muralitharan at Edgbaston, which in the following years would
develop into the switch-hit that would become the batsman's latest
attacking option. He didn't feel any bowler could tie him down, and
largely his results supported that bold statement.
England's 5-0 Ashes
whitewash and subsequent World Cup failing hurt Pietersen as much as
anyone although yet more centuries confirmed his advance towards the
highest echelon of world batting. His dominance continued against West
Indies with a majestic 226 at Headingley - finally beating his previous
158, a score he had made three times previously. It was the highest
score by an England batsman since Graham Gooch's 333, and his march
towards greatness continued.
When a dip in
2007-08 threatened to turn into a trough he bounced back with vital
centuries, including a backs-to-the-wall 129 in Napier after England
had been reduced to 4 for 3, and another at Trent Bridge the following
summer. Those, though, were just the prelude to the innings that he had
most craved - a hundred at Lord's in his first Test appearance against
his native South Africa, a performance which quashed once and for all
the lingering doubts about his switch of allegiance. After a rapturous
reception from the Lord's crowd, he later declared he had never felt
"so loved".
Just a few weeks
later and he had completed his extraordinary journey from naturalised
Englishman to England's captain when he took over from Vaughan who
announced his retirement just after the third Test against South
Africa. As he prepared to lead them in all three forms of the game,
Pietersen declared: "I'm going to do it my way," and from the very
start he was true to his word: a century and a victory in his maiden
Test in charge at The Oval, followed by a thumping 4-0 victory in the
subsequent ODI series. His standing rose, too, with his handling of the
Mumbai terror attacks, but while his tenure was never going to be dull,
few expected it to be so short and dramatic. After criticising Moores
following a tough tour of India, forcing the ECB to call an emergency
meeting, he resigned from his post, leaving English cricket in crisis.
Pietersen, though,
came back strongly with a 97 in his first innings under new captain
Andrew Strauss in the West Indies, and his status as one of the game's
biggest players was confirmed with a US$1.55 million annual IPL
contract, the most expensive along with team-mate Andrew Flintoff.
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