Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Bit harsh. I felt he still had plenty to offer England.

I'm guessing this has more to do with the dressing room than anything on the field.

Shocked, even though rumour was, he was finished with England.

Arguably our best middle order bat since Barrington, or maybe you could go further back. Certainly a great player to watch, with the knocks in India and sri-lanka proving that.

It will be boring without him

When KP was first being touted to play for England I admit I was worried.

Tales of dressing room disruption at Notts were legendary and it appeared KP was a bit of a loose cannon. However he also had talent. Those 3 consecutive ODI tons at the start of his England career made me think that maybe the baggage would be worth it.

He has one of the best test batting records of all time for England. Sadly the papers are always looking for a bad boy and there are plenty of stories rightly or wrongly linking him to various periods of unrest in the England camp. Moores, Strauss and Flower all left their posts prematurely. Was this all down to KP? Maybe. Maybe not. Textgate however was plain stupid.

Well England have got what they want. Having already lost several players during the winter - Swann wont be back, Prior and Trott may not be either - this was what we didn't need.

My first thought was "What if the new Test coach wanted him?" However I'm guessing the ECB already want Giles and Mr Wheelie Bin appears not to want him.

I'm suddenly losing my appetite for international cricket. Who would have thought the massive drubbing in Oz could not be the worst thing to happen to English cricket this winter?.

I thought Giles liked KP?

Pietersen or Flower read neither of them.

Brave call Mr Downton, but the right one.

New era where its all about the team not individuals please.

While I'm sure many on here will be delighted by this news, I personally find it rather hard to look past that England have just ditched one of their few genuine world class players, and not for cricketing reasons.

I don't think selection can be about anything other than on field performance, it's a slipperly slope and as they say those who live by the sword die by the sword.

I'm just glad Ian Botham isn't playing cricket in this era.

Aidan11 wrote:I'm just glad Ian Botham isn't playing cricket in this era.

At least he wouldn't be commentating

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26040475

The IPL will be very happy with this news....

At least his autobiography will be a guaranteed best seller.

Seriously, can England really afford to finish KP's career.

KP goes and Dernbach stays.

crikey!

I hadn't heard.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face

be interesting to see how many times he turns out for Surrey, next season.

Pietersen will make a lot more money now that he can sign for anyone he feels like.

Cook is a useless captain who leads England to the worst 5-0 drubbing they've ever had............... so Pietersen has to go

That makes sense

yuppie wrote:Seriously, can England really afford to finish KP's career.

Possibly not but i think it is a very clear indicator of how divisive a character he was in the dressing room.

It would be interesting to know what actual 'agreement' has been reached. What happens if and when there are changes at the ECB, new selectors and so on - are they bound by any legal arrangement not to select KP? I don't think that's possible unless KP himself has signed his England career away officially in some form of confidentiality agreement.

I posted that the fall out wouldn't be pretty - it never is.