Last year, when Andrew Strauss held a meeting with Kevin Pietersen to effectively shut the door on his Test future, the ECB’s director of cricket held out the smallest of olive branches to England’s record run-scorer.
Offering Pietersen a ‘role’ as a batting consultant in England’s one-day set-up may have been something of a token gesture in an attempt to heal old wounds – a role that KP was never likely to take, either – but it at least showed that Strauss has some trust where KP is concerned. Ironic considering it was a ‘lack of trust’ that was cited as the reason for him being omitted from Test proceedings.
The ECB and Strauss now find themselves approaching another ‘Pietersen selection juncture’ with cries for him to be included in England’s forthcoming t20 squad for the World Cup in India. After thrilling the crowds during his second season with the Melbourne Stars at the Big Bash, KP’s supporters have been making themselves heard loud and clear: If England want to win a major tournament, having KP in the side is an absolute must in the Sub-continent.
I believe there is a lot of respect between Strauss and Pietersen.
Away from cricket they are different animals, but despite what has gone on in the past with the ‘textgate’ scandal and Strauss being caught calling KP a naughty name while on air with Sky Sports, these two guys shared some wonderful times together in an England dressing room.
As cricketers they were at the heart of England’s greatest side of the modern era; Strauss the tactical brain; Pietersen the run-scoring enforcer.
Kevin will know and appreciate that Strauss is a fair man, and a well-balanced bloke.
Andrew will know that Pietersen is a matchwinner and, while there is certainly an ego there, and some points that needed to be addressed, the ‘bad boy’ tag can at times be misplaced.
I don’t believe Kevin should be playing Test, or even one-day cricket for England. There was a degree of mistreatment last year when Colin Graves appeared to leave the door ajar and while he was arguably worth his place in the two longer formats then, I think we have moved on from that now and, at 35, with an away Ashes series to build towards and a World Cup in 2019, that door should be closed.
However, t20 is a different story. Kevin is the best t20 batsmen in the world at the moment – better even than AB de Villiers simply because he has the recent numbers to prove it.
The t20 World Cup in India is not about building for the future, it is a major tournament that is there for the taking and if England want to win then they should pick Kevin. Simple!
Aside from the cricketing logic, it is a perfect opportunity for the ECB to give the game in this country a huge lift. People want to see Kevin in action, but they also want to see an end to all this political nonsense – cricket fans have just had enough.
By all means, stick to your guns in Test cricket and the one-day stuff; I get those reasons for building towards success but what a statement it would be, and a forward-thinking one, to say: “We are coming to win this World t20, and we have the best batsman to help us do that.”
The other point to note is that the current t20 side doesn’t have the baggage of the old Test side – and is relatively free from containing players that came under the hammer in KP’s – all be it ill-advised – autobiography.
I saw there was a bit of needle between David Willey and Pietersen during the Big Bash semi-final, but I’m not buying into that and nor should anyone else; there’s no problem there.
And I can vouch for Kevin here because I have shared a dressing room with him. Yes, he can be prickly and yes, he can push buttons. But he isn’t the only player who has done that and I believe he would offer an awful lot of support to the younger guys around him. There can be a misunderstanding, but if a young player wanted help, Kevin would offer his services.
English cricket needs to move on; we need to make a statement. It’s not a long-term fix but simply a fix for now. If KP needs to be managed, how hard can it be over a t20 tournament?
Pick the players who will win us the tournament in India, or at least the ones who will give us the best chance to do so. Then move on from there and see where we go. It could be a golden period for English cricket.
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This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, Friday January 29 2016
