Not to the English skipper alone, to the world of cricket, Pietersen comes out to be a character who complains too much. Despite still being the best batsman in the England cricket team, Pietersen considers his team to be “a lonely place to be”.  Pietersen has been throwing himself in the middle of controversies by making statements that are utterly unnecessary. And now he says that his frankness and honesty have been misunderstood and misrepresented in cricket news media. “Maybe I was a bit too honest with some of the stuff,” Pietersen felt and resolved to take the safe “good areas” route before making any statement before media.

(Read the Cricket360 related article "Pietersen Goes Loose Tongued Once Again")

 

In the hindsight the ex-captain of England says it was his frustration that led him make the statements that were honest in nature, but reactionary in its repercussion. “The honesty came from frustration," he said. "I was captain in the first half of the winter and that didn't go according to plan and there were no victories there and coming into last week there also still wasn't a victory. We train hard, we train as much as anybody, and we try and play as well. We're all winners by nature and the frustration of not winning a game on the tour so far except for that mathematical error from West Indies was really frustrating.”

Even then, one can not just stop questioning the contradictions in his statements. On the one hand he expresses his desperate home sickness for which he applies for a forty eight hours leave from the team management in the middle of the ongoing series. But how much time he would actually get to spend at his home as he has to pack his bag once again and catch the flight to South Africa to be with his IPL team! Well, even though KP blames it all on his South African background for receiving all the thrashing from English media times and again, the public in England is not likely to put up with his style of placing himself ahead of the team for long. And in a slowly but clearly emerging trend, people have started thinking that no matter however brilliant Pietersen is as a batsman, he is not irreplaceable, and his arrogance causes more damage to the team than his cricket scores serve good for it.

With a Test average of 51.09 and one-day mean of 46.65 he remains one of England’s most successful postwar batsmen. Definitely, Pietersen is a case in point; he proves the point that making the highest cricket score for the country, can not be the guarantee for popularity. Playing for the team for over four years and still he thinks the England squad “a lonely place to be” which only confirms the point: KP is in seclusion among his colleagues.

Now if the aggressive batsman who takes pride in his professionalism feels so much urgency for settling the things straight, he must do it through his bat against the Windies in the upcoming St Lucia cricket ODI on Friday, and not through his words. So we hope, KP keeps in mind his skipper’s advice to act more responsibly before he makes any public statement and abides by his reminder that “As cricketers, we really should only be doing our talking on the pitch”.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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