by Arthur Crabtree » Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:39 pm
When Kevin Pietersen made his debut against Australia at Lord's in 2005, he didn't come into the side as the kind of deus ex machina for English cricket that fellow African born Graeme Hick seemed to be. Kevin was more of a performance artist, a dramatist, who appeared to operate only partly in terms of strategy and technique, but also, thrillingly, of imagination. So by the end of that summer, the summer of all England fans' sporting lives, when he was challenged with bringing the Ashes home for England by drawing the Oval Test on September 12, he did it by scoring 158 off 187 balls. His partnership with Ashley Giles, of 109 in 25 overs, that won the series, didn't just secure the draw. It felt like a buddy movie, between the persevering Giles, and KP the showman. It felt perfect. Even a bit moving.
How must it be, to reach that level of exaggerated, theatrical fulfilment so early in your career, or even your life? How can you begin to build a career in the shadow of that amazing day? Did he ever deliver on the possibilities glimpsed that series? Next he showed his versatility with a hundred against spin and the disconcerting pace of Shoaib Akhtar in Faisalabad. But England lost in Pakistan, and the draw in India, which really was a great result, was seen as a failure. Pietersen's 87 in Nagpur against Kumble and Harbhajan was a stunning innings, technically beyond the reach of his team mates, but there was disappointment as realisation took root that England were not to be the era defining Test team that we hoped they might.
People talked of post Ashes malaise. There wasn't the ambition and intensity on the field that we grew used to in the early years of Michael Vaughan's captaincy, as key players got injured or lost their way. England drew with Sri Lanka, and beat Pakistan in a low key summer more memorable for ball tampering allegations. In Birmingham, Pietersen switch hit Muralitharan into the Hollies Stand, an astonishing feat that showcased KP the innovator. Pietersen was audacious and had the crucial self belief to make his daydreams real. That winter, in spite of his huge partnership with Paul Collingwood at the Adelaide Oval, England were dismally thrashed 5-0 by Australia. The arc of England's ambitions had come to earth; the Fletcher era ended as most do, in a definitive defeat.
And so, Pietersen was fated to be at his peak, in a period when English cricket struggled to remain credible. Which is really where my support of Kevin started. When sportspeople fail to achieve the goals we set for them, supporters can feel personally let down. KP and all the England players endured a lot of criticism, even abuse in this time, which I didn't think was right. And really without KP, England would have scraped along the bottom of the ranking. Between the end of the Ashes of 2005, and the Flower era in 2009, Pietersen averaged over 50 with 16 hundreds (at a strike rate of 62). He scored 1000 more runs than the next performing batter, Andrew Strauss. He kept England alive in this period, though often criticised for shot selection, or even character. But, really, if ever in my lifetime an England batter has been world class, Kevin was then. But his runs were lost in the struggles of others, and led to little team success. Eventually, Pietersen was broken, when the ECB leaked details of his report on Peter Moores, and he was sacked as captain.
Some of Kevin's most memorable innings came in the years after 2009, under Andy Flower. At the Adelaide Oval in 2010 Australia became clueless how to stop him, as he hit 227, without even appearing challenged. At Lord's in 2011, he resisted the Indian seamers on day one under cloud, and them destroyed them the next day in the sunshine. In 2012 came his final classic trilogy, at the Wankhede, Colombo and against South Africa at Headingley. But we were nearing the end. England were in decline under Flower, as they had been before under Fletcher and Moores. This time, Kevin didn't have the vitality to carry a failing team. And it was just too hard being him too. If he could have recovered beyond his second Ashes whitewash, without Flower in charge, we'll never know.
Kevin Pietersen is the second highest scorer of hundreds for England. He leaves us with the tenth best England average ever, and the nine ahead of him are legends. He retires with the best average since Boycott and but for his last game, it would have been Barrington. For all people said he threw away his wicket, his conversion rate from 50 to 100 is better than Hutton, Boycott and Barrington. But he played shots that none of these would have dreamed of. He entertained a lot of people. And he was present at some of British sports most enduring moments. He didn't fulfil all of his promise. No one does. But then KP was always judged by different standards.
Kevin Pietersen, 8181 Test runs and 23 hundreds, average 47.28.
I always say that everybody's right.