West Indies great Andy Roberts said that England’s loss is the St Lucia Zouks’ gain as Kevin Pietersen prepares to embark upon the Caribbean Premier League.
Pietersen’s hopes of an international recall were dashed last month by new England director of cricket Andrew Strauss, despite the controversial batsman bludgeoning 355 not out for Surrey against Leicestershire in a Championship match, the highest of his career.
Strauss highlighted “a massive trust issue” between the England and Wales Cricket Board and Pietersen as the reason for his continued exile from the England set-up.
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But Roberts, part of the explosive pace quartet for the Windies in the 1970s and early 1980s who took 202 wickets in 47 Tests, thinks the sole issue should only be whether the South African-born batsman is still capable of excelling in international cricket.
Asked whether Pietersen should still be playing for England, Roberts said: “If he’s still scoring the runs and he’s fit to play then I see no reason why not. One of the things that I see is that we must keep personal matters out of the sport.”
Pietersen will head to St Lucia unburdened for the third instalment of the Caribbean’s Twenty20 competition, the second time he will represent the Zouks after playing in the latter stages of their campaign last year.
Roberts, who will be mentoring the Zouks for the tournament that begins on June 20, hopes the 34-year-old batsman can have the same impact.
“Once Kevin Pietersen comes to St Lucia Zouks and prepares to play his part I don’t think he’ll have a problem with anybody. He didn’t have any problems with any of us last year when he came for two matches,” Roberts said. “I found that he helped and he looked to help some of the youngsters. They had a few conversations with him and some have seen wisdom in what he’s said.”
Pietersen will be one of the senior players for the Zouks in a squad also containing New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor and West Indies pacemen Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel.
Bowling all-rounder Darren Sammy will captain the side, who have failed to progress beyond the group stage in the first two editions, but Roberts is enthusiastic this year.
“We’re hoping that this year we can get a little further on in the competition,” Roberts said. “We’re not short of experience this year, what they’ve been short of in the last couple of years is victories and we’re hoping that we can better that this year.”
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