Kevin Pietersen

From Cricipedia - The Cricket Encyclopedia!

Kevin Peter Pietersen (born June 27, 1980 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) is an England and Hampshire middle order batsman. Born in South Africa he developed a love of the game, and along with the support of his family decided to try and make a name for himself in the game. He started off playing for local South African side Natal (also known as KwaZulu-Natal). Pietersen has recently established himself as one of the senior players in the England Test and One Day International sides, but his road to get to the England national side hasn't been an easy one.

Contents 1 Life in South Africa 2 Career at Notts 3 England Academy 4 Pietersen's Breakthrough Tour 5 Test Match Cricket 6 World Cup Onwards 7 External links

Life in South Africa

Pietersen, in his Natal days played predominantly as an off-spinning all-rounder. His career at Natal didn't quite go to plan however, as he was forced out of the team in place of Gulam Bodi, a player Pietersen regarded not to be of international standards; with race being one of the main reasons for Bodi's inclusion in the team. The South African quota system stated that each team must have a set proportion of black/multicultural players, something that Natal didn't conform to with Pietersen in the side. After being dropped from the side he and his father went and had a strict talk with the Natal coach, but their points were largely ignored, and Pietersen was shunted. This seemingly uninterested approach from the Natal management left Pietersen with a conundrum, either leave Natal and struggle with the quota system, or move to England and make a name for himself there. After much deliberation and talks with friends and family, Pietersen thought that he have the best chance moving to England. His first club when in England was a Notts based side, Cannock. Whilst playing for Cannock he made a living working as a barman and then playing for the local side. This is when KP finally started to work hard on his batting, and his batting began to shine. After a successful season with Cannock he was offered a contract with Clive Rice's Notts side.

Career at Notts

Pietersen flew at the oppurtunity and joined up with the Notts side. In his first season with the Nottinghamshire outfit he made an impressive 1,275 runs with an average of 57 and a strike rate of 82. This first season in England was massively important for Kevin as it began his greatly successful English county career. The 2nd season was where things started to go wrong for Kevin, on personal termsanyway. His cricket was as successful as ever, making 871 runs at an average of 62.21 with 4 hundreds (including a massive 254*). On a personal level though, KP was starting to struggle. The main reason he joined Notts, the inspirational Clive Rice had left with the not so popular Mick Newell coming in as his replacement.

The appointment of Newell upset Pietersen immensely, as it was seen as a rushed appointment, with Newell seen as a yes man to the Notts board. It wasn't only the appointment of Newell that began to upset Pietersen, but his straying relationship with the Notts Captain, Jason Gallian. Pietersen and Gallian never did click in his time at Notts, but it was Gallian who seemed to have the grudge. In one incident involving the 2 players, Pietersen returned to the dressing room to discover that the club captain, the player who was put in charge and said to lead by example had thrown KP's equipment from the Trent Bridge balcony; something that angered KP immensely.

England Academy

The end of KP's 2nd season in professional cricket in England saw him finally break into the England Academy squad, run by former Australian wicket-keeper Rod Marsh. Pietersen entered the team with abit of a reputation on his back, he was earmarked as a cocky, arrogant individual, but fast bowler Simon Jones made it his mission to try and get KP settled into the side, and make sure that the rest of the team made judgements on KP from what they saw, not what they'd heard. Pietersen impressed at the Loughborough academy and made it onto the tour of India, and the Duleep Trophy. In his first match in India, Pietersen was asked to open the batting, making an impressive 131 from just 83 balls. The tour went on from there, with Pietersen making 3 hundreds and a fifty in his 6 innings, averaging an incredible 104.60.

The Duleep Trophy wasn't the end of Pietersen's activities for the year, as he managed to seal a move he'd been waiting for, a move to Southampton to play for Shane Warne's Hampshire side. His debut season for Hampshire was interrupted by England duties however, so the impact made was small, but he did manage to make 4 hundreds in the few games that he did play. Then, in the Autumn of 2004 came the moment that Pietersen had been looking forward to since making his move from South Africa; the call from England Head of Selectors, David Graveney, telling him he'd made it into the England side for the tour to Zimbabwe, the first tour that Pietersen was eligible for as an England player. Pietersen made an immediate impact in England colours, making a very solid 77 from 76 balls in a man of the match winning performance. This set Pietersen up incredibly well with the selectors, and he made the tour he'd been wanting to be a part of, the away tour of South Africa.

Pietersen's Breakthrough Tour

The tour to South Africa was the tour that introduced Kevin Pietersen to the world. Pietersen, keen to impress in the country of his birth made an incredible impact in the ODI series, finishing with an astonishing average of 105.58, making 3 hundreds and a fifty. The game that meant most to Pietersen though was his return to his home ground, Durban. Unfortunately, Pietersen didn't get a chance to bat, in a rain affected final game. The crowds had changed since the start of the tour though, at the start of the tour, when Pietersen made his maiden ODI hundred, the Bloemfontein crowd shunned KP, turning their backs on him. When he made his final hundred of the tour, from 61 balls, he recieved a standing ovation, something that meant alot to Pietersen.

Test Match Cricket

Playing at Test level was next on Pietersen's to-do list, and, as a man who puts his money, if not always his mind, where his mouth is, it was only a matter of time. Overlooked for two Tests against Bangladesh, he made his debut against Australia at Lord's of all places, and responded with a pair of hard-hitting fifties in a losing cause. The most resounding moment of this match was when Pietersen launced one of the greatest bowlers of all time, Glenn McGrath, 3 tiers high at Lords for a magnificent six. That shot certainly announced KP on the Test Match stage.

Pietersen continued his good form throughout that Ashes series, but it wasn't until the 5th and final test, arguably the most important test in England's recent test match history that Pietersen really made his mark. The Oval was the host of Pietersen's key innings in the entire series, and the innings which really got him going in test match cricket. Pietersen came out and played a magnificent 158 in the most tense of circumstances to earn his team a well deserved draw, and to win his side the Ashes for the first time since 1981. This innings of 158 also made him the leading run scorer in the 2005 Ashes series, an amazing feat in his debut Test series.

Unsurprisingly, that innings proved hard to live up to, but astonishingly Pietersen managed it, clubbing two more big hundreds in his next two Test innings in England, the second of which - against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston - included a remarkable reverse-sweep for six off Muttiah Muralitharan. Pietersen then travelled to Australia, where he once again showed his guile and determination to succeed. Pietersen averaged 54.44 in the series with 1 hundred (another 158) and 3 fifties. His tour ended in dissapointment though, as he flew home after breaking a rib thanks to a nice bouncer from Glenn McGrath.

World Cup Onwards

Then came an event that Pietersen will look back to as another successful debut; his World Cup debut. In a world cup which spelt the end of Duncan Fletcher's reign, England bowed out unsuccessfully, but Pietersen managed to gain a decent amount of success from the tournament. In the whole tournament he averaged 55.50 with 2 more impressive hundreds and 3 fifties. This successful world cup campaign also saw KP move to number 1 in the ICC ODI Player Rankings. A table where KP now sits at number 9.

Since the world cup, Pietersen has not been amazingly impressive, other than a successful series against a weak West Indies side, whereby he made his first Test Match double hundred, getting over the elusive 158 mark he'd set 3 times. In series against India, Sri Lanka and in the first 3 ODI's against New Zealand he hasn't been able to continue his normal solid form, which has led him to slip down the test and ODI player rankings, to 9th in both tables (still the highest ranked England batsman). The future looks good for Pietersen though, with him constantly earmarked as Michael Vaughan's replacement as England captain, and if he can regain the form that he showed at the start of his fantastic career he will certainly go on to be one of England's greatest ever players.

External links

• Kevin Pietersen Profile - World Wide Cricket