Posted by There you go. We’ve nailed our colours to the mast and those assorted greys and beiges that you can see fluttering in the breeze indicate our lack of hatred for Kevin Peter Pietersen (yes, that’s his real middle name).
More than that, we don’t quite get why so many people do hate him. He plays for England, averages 50, scores his runs with a clomping glee and is one of the few batsmen in the world who can explode from being smothered by the bowlers and instead make them run scared. He’s amazing.
Maybe it’s the caricature of him as an arrogant mercenary who’s only interested in personal glory. That’s a simplistic depiction.
The treachery of his switch of allegiance goes hand in hand with the iron-willed and successful pursuit of his ambitions; the arrogance is just his toeing the line of supreme, but largely justified, self confidence; and the attention-seeking switch hitting is just a pragmatic way of hitting gaps in the field. When the ball goes for four, the end justifies the means.
We’ve every reason to believe he’ll be a decent England captain. Maybe even a great one. He has little experience, but his track record of achieving what he sets out to do is staggering.
He was a number eight in South African domestic cricket. He came to England, averaged 50, hit four hundreds in four innings on an England A tour to India, then hit three hundreds in five one-day innings against the country of his birth almost immediately after being promoted to the one-day side. If he thinks he can make England successful, it’s worth giving him a go.
We thought that Pietersen should have been made captain when the one-day job was up for grabs. He’s a thinking batsman who comes up with some unconventional solutions. Hopefully he’ll adopt a similar approach with his captaincy.
Plus he actually has opinions and doesn’t mind giving them in press conferences, unlike most of his team mates.
I reckon it’ll be fun. Although I still think – as an Essex fan whose delighted Bopara’s had the call-up – the absence of Rob Key is a ploy to lull the Aussies into a false sense of security.
Ravi Bopara’s very much worth his place in the team, but we did think that the loss of a top order batsman might just lead to His return.
Sorry, but I have to disagree. The way Kevin Pietersen talks makes him sound like he used to have to go to school on the little bus.
good one kc, what a funny article… you don’t understand why so many people hate kp….. ha! some people may have not enjoyed the sublime wit that you showed though, so perhaps i should explain… we hate him because in general, he is very good at making money playing a game… in fact he excels at the game (did you just lose)… clearly anyone that good has not reached those glittering heights by hard work and constant practice, but by the foul means of witchcraft. clearly he is the work of satan and should be burned.
“I reckon it’ll be fun” … I remember when Kevin Keegan was manager of England football team, everyone said at least it will be fun. It wasn’t and that is the reason i gave up on football …
Saying “it’ll be fun” is like the term “strike bowler” (as in ‘Steve Harmison is a …’ ); it’s just giving him an excuse to bowl shit. If KP’s captaincy is ‘at least’ fun, it’ll mean it is wrong.
Captaincy is only fun if you win or start fighting above your collective abilities. Nasser’s captaincy was fun – especially when Giles bowled two-feet outside leg stump to Tendulkar. That was great.
My worry is that he has on occasion showed a complete lack of judgement. The “splat hairdo” during the Ashes and most recently this (for which I thank lovely Ceci):
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q102/cecimas/kevbluesuit2.jpg
I wonder how he will command the respect of the players, given he is an arse?