Kevin Pietersen
Discussion
Watched bits of Pietersen smack the South African bowlers all over the park for the past couple of weeks. Wow! What a player. Awesome power and incredibly consistency. The thought of him and Flintoff in the same side next summer is enough to sell out any game I reckon. And he's playing for my team Hampshire next season. 
Anyone know why he chose to play for England and not South Africa?
Anyone know why he chose to play for England and not South Africa?
unrepentant said:Quota (as someone else mentioned) and also because the team he was playing for had brought him through as a spinner who could bat a little bit. He got frustrated with the lack of chance to show what he could do up the order (they had him batting at nine!) due to both their blinkered view and the requirments for playing non-whites.
Anyone know why he chose to play for England and not South Africa?
So he upped sticks and moved to England to play for Notts and he re-invented himself as a batsman (and a pretty good one at that). After falling out with people at Notts, he's moved to Hampshire (yay
), but given his talent they may see little of him 
BTW, don't believe all the comments about his batting style being suspect in the longer form of the game (as per Sky commentary team). He has two distinct styles, one for each format.
I can't wait to see him and Freddie together in a one-dayer!!
Sheepy
Iceman82 said:
Can't wait to see if he can re-produce the same skills at the Rose Bowl this season!! Could be a good year down south!!
I'll drink to that.
I grew up watching the great Hampshire side of the 70's. In those days we had Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge opening the batting and Anderson Montgomery Everton Roberts opening the bowling! (And after him Malcolm Marshall!)
I remember as a schoolboy climbing over the wall to get into the May's Bounty at Basingstoke (when Hampshire still played there once a year) and watching Richards cart the bowling all over the park at will and then watching Andy Roberts start his run up from the boundary edge!
I played a bit of league cricket then and we had a tall black fast bowler called Alvin Adams who looked a bit like Roberts. He wasn't really that quick but our keeper stood 30 yards back and Alvin came in off a Robertsesque run up and the batsmen swallowed hard as he bounded to the crease and tended to get out quickly.
>> Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 15th February 12:06
sheepy said:
BTW, don't believe all the comments about his batting style being suspect in the longer form of the game (as per Sky commentary team). He has two distinct styles, one for each format.
There is no doubt he is a tallented individual, yet he has to prove himself in the test match arena. The 5 day game is a world apart from one-dayers and in the summer he will be facing some of the best bowlers in the world.
zetec said:Sorry, didn't put it very well. In the four-day county games, he plays with a quite different style to how he plays in the shorter format of the game (less shuffling across the stumps). Boring Bob on Sky was commenting that he would be unsuitable for test-match cricket because of this habit of trying to get legside of each ball (Instantly showing exactly how little research he does on the players he's passing judgement on!).
BTW, don't believe all the comments about his batting style being suspect in the longer form of the game (as per Sky commentary team). He has two distinct styles, one for each format.
Sheepy
Oh yes - stayed up to watch as much of the game as poss (19.30 start this end of the globe) - great personal innings from KP - any part of the pitch will do. Collingwood's catch wasn't bad either....
Can't wait for others to turn up to work this morning for a good ribbing, esp following Bangladesh.
Can't wait for others to turn up to work this morning for a good ribbing, esp following Bangladesh.
unrepentant said:
What did I say?!
This guy is awesome.
And he did a very important thing at the end - did you notice - he turned and went and shook every Aussie player's hand and looked them directly in the eye ...
In a game that is for the most part psychological, that was a very deliberate gesture.
Not having a go at Robert Key, who is an excellent player and has a county average far in advance of KP's this season but if you were an Aussie bowler, which batsman would scare you the most if you were coming in to bowl?
And that's the psychological bit. England: don't lose it.
He scores runs quickly - not just over the top down the ground and that's needed in modern Test cricket - well certainly against the lot from Down Under.
Of course he's not actually in the Test side ...
Another important point is that bowlers of the quality of Gillespie were reduced to simply not knowing where to bowl or what length to bowl ...
As the Ashes series starts so late in the summer (July 21) I thought having the one day series BEFORE the Tests might have been a mistake - the formula being get 'em over here - a couple of warm up games and then into the Tests straight away - but this may prove to have worked out better.
Ashes?
Bring 'em on!!
>> Edited by MikeyT on Sunday 19th June 23:07
As much as I wanted England to win today, I also wanted the arrogant KP to be out for a duck. The way he behaved when back in South Africa was abominable, and turned my stomach. He learnt all his cricket here, and chose to run away when faced with a little uphill. Considering the atrocious treatment of certain sectors of our society for centuries, a little patience and humility while working extra-hard for a place in teams seems like a small burden to bear in the longer-run search for a broader base of players from which to build great teams on.
Ciao
Zak
Ciao
Zak
zaktoo said:
As much as I wanted England to win today, I also wanted the arrogant KP to be out for a duck. The way he behaved when back in South Africa was abominable, and turned my stomach. He learnt all his cricket here, and chose to run away when faced with a little uphill. Considering the atrocious treatment of certain sectors of our society for centuries, a little patience and humility while working extra-hard for a place in teams seems like a small burden to bear in the longer-run search for a broader base of players from which to build great teams on.
Ciao
Zak
I personally thought the treatment the SA fans gave him was abimonable. If SA cricket rated him they would have kept him. As it is they will have to watch on enviously as he has a huge career.
unrepentant said:
As much as I wanted England to win today, I also wanted the arrogant KP to be out for a duck. The way he behaved when back in South Africa was abominable, and turned my stomach. He learnt all his cricket here, and chose to run away when faced with a little uphill. Considering the atrocious treatment of certain sectors of our society for centuries, a little patience and humility while working extra-hard for a place in teams seems like a small burden to bear in the longer-run search for a broader base of players from which to build great teams on.
Ciao
Zak
I personally thought the treatment the SA fans gave him was abimonable. If SA cricket rated him they would have kept him. As it is they will have to watch on enviously as he has a huge career.
The truth of the matter is that he ouldn't quite hack it back home. He got sick of trying here, and went over to the UK and then got his breakthrough. I for one hope his career tanks. Big time. And that's certainly not impossible.
Ciao
Zak
gargamel said:
So what if he couldn't hack it SA
Maybe the coaching and support in the UK county game was better for him, He waited his time for England and applied legally he is no as british as Greg Rusedski.
We never worried about Robin Smith, Alan Lamb or any number of others - why start now ?
Err because I'm South African, and I get really pissed off when our priveledged classes leave in a huff taking all they can from here and simply giving it away to another country that has done nothing but sit back and wait for the rats abandoning ship? Some of us stick i t out here and try to contribute back and make a positive difference, not just follow the money/fame/glory/easy road.
Ciao
Zak
If you can't beat em join em !
I realised you are a south african - hence the bitterness t'ward KP
But in fairness if the SA board hadn't allowed equal ops to get in the way of oicking the best players then mabe KP would still be there.
Come on the quota policy is not and never will be the way to go.
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