Big sporting news this morning was the decision by a panel representing the England and Wales Cricket Board to part company with Kevin Pietersen. In his Test career Pietersen has scored 8,181 runs at an average of 47 in 104 Tests, which is pretty outstanding – certainly compared with other current England batsmen. And at 33 he’s probably still got a few years of international cricket in him. Can England really afford to cast him aside just because some of his team-mates find him a bit difficult?
I’m perfectly well aware that Pietersen is not the kind of player who always puts the team first, and being such a maverick he must be a very frustrating player to captain, but he is clearly also a prodigiously talented batsmen. It’s true that he didn’t play well in Australia, but then who did (other than Ben Stokes)? In fact Pietersen averaged better with the bat than his Captain, so you could argue that it’s Alastair Cook who should be dropped if the problem is between the two of them (as some have suggested).
And then there’s the fact that – love them or hate them – it’s players like KP who are the crowd-pullers. It’s never just been about the ability to play the game. People like to see larger-than-life characters in sport.
Anyway, I know that opinions differ on this issue so I thought I’d try a quite poll:
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