SHARJAH // So we are still talking about Kevin. It seems a difficult habit to break, even if Giles Clarke, the chairman of English cricket, reckons we should all just move on and forget about him.
He is not coming back, apparently, so we have to consign him to the memory bank, according to officialdom.
Never going to happen. Kevin Pietersen remains all too relevant.
After a miserable first quarter in 2014, when a full stop was applied to the international career of England’s most prolific run-scorer, he is about to get the chance to play some cricket. Injured finger permitting.
It goes without saying he will be keen to impress when he takes to the crease as captain of Delhi Daredevils in Dubai today for the first time since his England contract was torn up.
Bowlers in the Indian Premier League (IPL), with little assistance likely to come their way at batting-friendly grounds in the UAE, could be about to discover that hell hath no fury like KP scorned.
And yet the man reckons he has no point to prove whatsoever.
“What transpired in March has nothing to do with what I’m about to do now,” Pietersen was quoted as saying last week. “I’m not out here to make any point and neither do I play cricket for that reason.”
And if you believe that, you will believe that today is going to begin with a sharp frost over Dubai, heavy rain in Sharjah and a thick blanket of snow in Al Ain.
Either Pietersen has a short memory or he is deliberately missing the point. The particular point he apparently has no need to prove.
He also claimed last week, in the Indian Express: “I don’t read the media, especially in England. No interest.”
Odd claim, seeing how regularly he rails against them. So the offending passages of “lies”, as he terms various reports of his alleged insurrection during this winter’s Ashes, appear on his social media time line via osmosis, apparently.
He has spent his whole career raging against some indignation or other.
It is not as though that is a bad thing. It is the anger within which has fuelled his greatness. When everything is on the line, he thrives. It is the trait which defines his career.
He left South Africa in the first place because of a system that was holding him back. So he said, anyway.
Those he left behind reckoned his move to the UK was driven by finance, not politics.
His arrival on the international stage came via a limited-overs series back in the land of his birth. He was mercilessly abused, yet was astonishingly prolific in the face of intense provocation.
His twin 50s on Test debut in the 2005 Ashes confirmed the point that England were right to take a chance on his unproven potential in such a seminal series.
The 158 he then made at the Oval, when the series was on the line, underlined it in the most unambiguous terms.
More recently, his princely 186 for England in Mumbai in 2012, which laid the platform for England’s first series win in India in 28 years, confirmed that his “reintegration” was complete.
Even those teammates he supposedly alienated acknowledged as much, at the time.
He knows there will plenty of those watching him here, wanting him to fail.
Whether he wants to show them up, or is playing for the fun of it, what is for certain is that his Delhi Daredevils side need him involved as soon as possible.
The franchise broke the bank to bring Pietersen and Dinesh Karthik aboard for this season of the IPL.
Karthik made a first-ball duck in the opening loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Sharjah on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Pietersen’s finger injury meant he was only up to holding a television microphone, not a cricket bat.
The Daredevils top order was rudderless without him.
“He is obviously a big loss to our team,” said JP Duminy, the South African batsman who top-scored for Delhi in the opening game.
“He is our team captain, so the sooner we get him back the better. He is ready and waiting to contribute to our team’s performance.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter at SprtNationalUAE
