Pietersen goes back to his roots for IPL

Kevin Pietersen, the England batsman, will loom large over Indian cricket for the next two weeks when he takes charge of the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Looking back, it seems amazing to think India's cricket administrators originally tried to barricade themselves against the onset of the Twenty20 game. It could dilute the primacy of the game's 'crown jewels' - ie: Test and one-day international matches - they claimed. And besides, how many commercial breaks could possibly be fitted into a game lasting just three hours?

India were the last major nation to sign up for the inaugural T20 World Cup. Even then it was brought about by a trade-off that gave them the rights to stage the next 50-over World Cup. That they eventually won the event changed cricket's landscape for good. The crown jewels have long since been sold off, in favour of a few DLF Maximums (the new name for sixes). The format has even been tweaked for this edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL); matches will be 15 minutes longer, to fit in more ad breaks. The complaint against T20, as opposed to Test cricket, is that it has no substance. It is a format of hidden shallows, which could never even hope to imitate the intrigue of the longer form of the game.

That is undeniably the case, yet this edition of IPL is rife with sub-plots. Take, for instance, the Bangalore Royal Challengers. With a side including Dale Steyn, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis, brought together by the former Proteas coach Ray Jennings, they should be well-backed in South Africa, the temporary home for the IPL. Then factor in the minor detail that they will be skippered by Kevin Pietersen. The Pietermaritzburg-born batsman is still persona non grata in the land of his birth, after swapping his colours for England - and stamping a three lions tattoo on his shoulder.

His former Hampshire teammate, Shane Warne, is a mini drama series in himself. He has interrupted his busy poker schedule to play in the IPL. He claims to have not bowled a ball in the past 12 months. If nothing else, the IPL serves as a reminder of just how many people the master leg-spinner upset during his sparkling career. Even before the main event, he was confronted by an old adversary. Warne's side, the Rajasthan Royals played in the Sahara Clash of the Champions against Cape Cobras, South Africa's Pro20 holders, who were captained by Justin Ontong.

The same Justin Ontong who suffered Warne's acid tongue on his Test debut. He was given a place in the Proteas in order to fill a quota, after the then boss of Cricket South Africa, Percy Sonn, overruled the selection panel. After Warne then reportedly sledged him mercilessly over it, calling him "Percy", Ontong was a broken man. "If that is what Test cricket is like, I don't want to be a part of it," he is said to have commented on returning to the dressing room.

When the two were reunited for the toss ahead of the Clash of the Champions, Warne was wearing a comedy moustache, not to defuse any lingering animosity between the two, but as part of his team's publicity drive. The Royals' owner, Manoj Badale, wants to transmit a sense of Jaipur to South Africa, and Warne was detailed to advertise the fact that the traditional-style moustaches were on sale in the stands.

Another player who Warne crossed in the past, Graeme Smith, is now under his charge with the Royals. After one season in the same IPL line-up, the duo are now "good buddies", according to the captain. Someone who is less likely to earn such a status is John Buchanan, the former Australia coach. There will be no love lost when Warne's Jaipur franchise meet the Buchanan-coached Kolkata Knight Riders. As Buchanan stated recently: "Even though I have massive respect for the person, the player and the entertainer, we have a distant relationship. Their is no conversation between us to speak of."

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