The End of KP ?

It looks like the party is finally over and we’ll never see Kevin Pietersen bat for England again. The writing has been on the wall since he was effectively expelled in February 2014.

However, as with students who don’t toe the line but have the undoubted ability, there was always a chance differences could be put aside.

Now, with the changing of the guard at the ECB and in spite of what he was told early in the year KP has to accept it and move on. I’m disappointed by it all and can see both sides of the argument but and it is a big ‘but’ England do not have a better batsman at their disposal right now. It’s not as if there is a stream of outrageously talented individuals waiting in the wings to take over, there simply isn't.

There is a pool of talent that can hold their own against most teams but there is no batsman there who can destroy an attack and change the course of a game. Kevin Pietersen can and he’s shown in the past few months that he still has that ability. He had a very good Big Bash League and was looking as good as I’ve seen him in terms of striking the ball and clearing the rope. He’s knuckled down to County Cricket and probably made the biggest score of the entire season.

I've been a cricket obsessive since 1987 and Viv Richards apart Kevin Pietersen is the single most destructive batsmen I've seen. Watching him tear apart the Aussies at The Oval in 2005 was sheer poetry in motion. It was utter genius and without him England wouldn't have won that game and reaped the benefits of a decade at the top table of Cricket. People who didn't even like Cricket took an interest in the game after that series as in 1981 when Ian Botham pulled his rabbit out of the hat.

Now the bad, KP is a difficult guy to get along with by all accounts. However once you’re on his wavelength then you remain so. Apparently he’s got an ego and is stubborn as a mule but these two traits are not necessary a bad thing if you want to succeed in life. They are bad things however, if you didn't go to the right school or have the right breeding. Just as Ian Botham was ostracised by the MCC for being himself and different to the ‘chaps’, KP has been too.

Pietersen is probably a pain in the arse for a captain to manage but managing players is what cricket captains are supposed to do. Man management, personal responsibility and a feeling that he’s appreciated are all something that most people see as working when you've a difficult costumer. He’s no angel, he’s admitted that and his friend and former skipper Michael Vaughan does too.

In all sports, not just Cricket results count and not personalities or niceties. If somebody is a very nice person and a brilliant sportsman, then great. However, given the choice between a batsmen who has reinvented his art (the switch hit) over somebody who will say ‘yes sir’ then I know which I’d opt for.

The ECB have been a shambles for a number of years now. They think they know better than their paying customers who they think should just shut up and pay up. They've got a culture of leaks that would make Malcolm Tucker proud. Add to that Paul Downtown was an absolute disaster as managing director, the reappointment of the Peter Moores after he failed first time around, and you've got something that isn't fit for purpose.

If I was Kevin Pietersen I’d be thinking that I’m better off out of that whole nest of vipers because it won’t be long before they stitch him up again. He now has the chance to really rub their noses in it by playing out of his skin and scoring a mountain of runs wherever he plays.