Kevin Pietersen arrived in Australia at about the same time as his former England colleagues left. As is now the established custom when he is absent from the national side, he is fulfilling his media commitments on the world-wide stage – and everyone is monitoring his every word. On Saturday he appeared on Fox Sports and was asked about the possibilities of an England comeback.
“Well, that is what I am looking at at the moment”, said Pietersen. “I mean, there will be a change of scenery with the ECB at board level and I’ve always expressed my desire to play for England again if I get the opportunity. It seems encouraging but I’ve obviously got a few steps to climb.
“It just makes perfect sense to explore different things and that’s what I’m doing at the moment. There’s nothing to add. I’ve still got some decisions to make. It’s the weekend now so nobody is picking up their phones, but come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday it will be very exciting hopefully”.
It is not entirely clear who Pietersen will be ringing. An educated guess is that he might be bypassing Paul Downton, the cricket director of the ECB; nor is Peter Moores likely to be at the top of his list. Rather, a conversation with Colin Graves, the ECB chairman elect who does not actually take up his position until May, seems much more likely.
Graves has already waved an olive branch of sorts in Pietersen’s direction by challenging him to give up his IPL contract and play some early season county cricket. Half a dozen counties are thought to be interested in signing Pietersen. Surrey, who were reluctant to renew Pietersen’s T20 contract, would be much more interested if he was available for all forms of the game. If Pietersen does make a spectacular return to domestic cricket, the chances are that his home ground will be down the road at the Oval.
Pietersen expressed an interest in playing any form of the game for England. “When you don’t play any form of international cricket and you haven’t for such a long time you miss everything – Test cricket, one day cricket. Playing for your country is very special”.
Pietersen added that he was surprised at England’s early exit from the World Cup, saying he had expected them to reach the quarter-finals “because of the talent in that squad. The way that some of them play their cricket I thought they had an outside chance. So I’m just disappointed for the lads because I like a lot of the lads.
“There’s a lot of talent there. For me it’s just really disappointing to see that talent getting on a plane before the quarter-finals, which could have produced wonderful things for their careers going forward. But they’ll live and learn and they will come back stronger.”
Now brace yourselves for the debate over whether Pietersen will come back stronger. Currently, this only seems possible if there is considerable debris in the vicinity of ECB towers.
