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Kevin Pietersen was the architect of some of England’s greatest triumphs in international cricket. A quintessential hitter, England was lucky to have a player like him. Pietersen, a South African by birth, chose to play international cricket for England, as his mother was English and became a superstar in his own right.
He was part of several Ashes victories, and was instrumental in England’s 2010 ICC WT20 victory and an era that defined the Test Series victory in India in 2012. Pietersen was far ahead of any other English hitter in Limited cricket and that’s the reason why he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a large amount of money during the start of the Indian Premier League.
Pietersen’s desire to play in the IPL did not sit well with other English players. This was a part of several other problems that eventually brought him to the end of his international career with the English cricket team.
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Former England captain Michael Vaughan, in an interview with foxsports.com.au, said the English players were jealous after Pietersen landed a great IPL contract.
“I think there was a lot of jealousy,” said Vaughan. “And the players will deny it entirely now, but I think it was at the time that Kevin had a massive contract.”
“There were all kinds of whispers and rumors of cliques on the team. There was a small band of a few; Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, (James) Anderson, (Stuart) Broad and Matt Prior. The whispers were that they were on one side and Kevin was standing alone on the other side.
“It was nothing else that Kev at the time wanted to go to the IPL. This is how it all started to explode and that was when those factions came into play.
“I was saying to the team that I wanted to play because it would promote the development of the one-day team and all the one-day players would have the opportunity to play there and improve their game.” They felt that he only wanted to go for the money. He had a great contract, while many of the other players didn’t even smell them.
“It was a lot Kevin against the team in terms of that.”
There was a conflict between Pietersen and English captain Andrew Strauss after it was discovered that Pietersen had sent a message to his friends on the South African team about his English teammates. This happened during the South African tour of England in 2012.
Pietersen was reported to have called Strauss and also alleged that he had given advice to a South African pacemaker on how to remove him.
Pietersen last played for England during the 2013-14 series of ashes that ended in a shameful loss for the Three Lions.
