DUBAI // Kevin Pietersen, the author, entrepreneur and business impresario, is already planning his next venture: a cricket book.
Not a sequel, of course. His previous literary offering was barely a sports tome. It was more a bitter righting of wrongs than a musing on his professional life and its glorious triumphs.
The cricket star thinks he left his audience wanting more via his recently released, second autobiography.
“Having written that book, and gone and done a load of Q and As around the country, the public are not really interested in the finer details and the nonsense in the book,” Pietersen said.
“All the public questions have been about my career. The book was just a level playing field to say: ‘Right, this is actually what happened, guys – there is another side to the story’. They want a cricket book now, and that is what I am going to bring out.”
The former England cricketer is in the UAE to oversee the expansion of his brand in Dubai. He is promoting the official launch of his new cricket academy, to be based at Kings School in Al Barsha starting in January.
As part the education programme already being run by his academy, pupils have been tasked with thinking up a new product or brand, based on his current business oeuvre.
Apparently, the Emirati children empathise more with someone who has their own clothing line than they do a cricketer. Clearly, life after cricket is unlikely to hold many fears. Pietersen has plenty going on.
So a return to life on the road as a coach with an international team, for example, is not likely to feature on his agenda any time soon.
“I don’t think I could fulfil a full role as an international coach, as I don’t have the time for it, as I have so many other things going on,” he said.
“Travelling again with an international side, I have no interest in. I wouldn’t mind dedicating 30 or 40 days on a consultancy basis to help batsmen for a certain team. But I can’t be doing with 260 nights on the road again.”
Pietersen will be in Australia next year, having signed up to play in the domestic Twenty20 League. Not in England colours, playing in the World Cup, though.
Having once expressed hopes of a return, he conceded that his international career “probably has finished” after his England contract was terminated this year. He thinks England are going to struggle to cause an impression at the tournament if they retain Alastair Cook at the top of the batting order.
“You have to pick players who get you to that total of 300,” he said. “I just don’t think England are doing that. Cook is in a difficult position.
“He is the captain and the leader of the side, and I don’t think he’s the right bloke – and a lot of people have said he’s not the right bloke – who will set the team up. He will put a lot of pressure on the other batters, rather than taking the pressure off.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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