****End of the road for Pietersen****

[Mail]

I am flabbergasted as he is far from the end of his abilities.

However, if you know my posts, you will know that I have insisted that the likes of Pietersen, Trott, Lumb, Keiswetter, Dernbach, Ballance etc should not have played for England for two key reasons.

Firstly apartheid falls and they flock here with our system allowing it to happen. Had apartheid not fallen, all of these guys would be in South Africa enjoying their ill gains. Pietersen mother may have been born here but what has she contributed to this country to have any claim?

Players like Strauss and Prior are also Saffers but came here very young so they have been through our Education and sporting systems through the age groups so they have a better appreciation for us, our culture and loyalties.

How could you be loyal or feel that tingling when you don the England shirt if you have not got a sense of value for us? How can you be loyal to us? Just as an example, just 18 months before making his test debut against the Aussies at the Oval, Trott was celebrating South Africa's victory against us!!!! Now are we saying he is Red White and Blue overnight?

Now there are exceptions where there is a marriage or asylum cases and I am sure there are a few other exceptions.

That said, our ridiculous rules allow it and Pietersen has been turning out for us and I have enjoyed his time with the team. He made a fantastic start in South Africa and continued until a few years ago, 2009 ish, when he became quite inconsistent and seemed to have been at the centre, if not the perpetrator, of internal conflicts.

I thank him for his service and wish him well and as a lover of cricket I will follow his career.

I await the reasons why he has been overlooked. On form, I see no real reason. I think the ECB has made a mistake.

Go well KP.

[mikesiva]

Mail a good post...

i know a few white saffers here in England and it seems to me they were only here because black people were now in charge in south Africa.

i now expect to see Petersen play a full ipl and he could turn out in our cpl in july...

[Mail]

Mikey hope you are well.

Well I do not wish to reduce the debate to a colour issue but the evidence support your statement and this really peeves me off. Reminds me of Zola Budd.

It is our rules that are absolute crap and even Jordan is now benefiting but i think he too came here quite young but I suspect not young enough.

Just to deviate slightly, at the height of the Kolpak saga, subject to correction, Northants turned out a team with only one Englishman, Panesar, the rest were Saffers.

Vaughan is at the centre of trying to understand the reasons behind Pietersen's dismissal so with such weight I hope we get some knowledge of what is happening soon.

[Mail]

Was just listening to Radio 4, an interview with Ed Smith and Vaughan, and the latter made an interesting point suggesting why such a big decision being made prior to the appointment of a new Director of Cricket who might well want Pietersen in his teams!!

[mikesiva]

Here is the problem that English journalists are totally ignoring...the IPL.

The ECB cannot win their fight with the IPL. They got the WI, NZ, and SL to fight their battles in the past, and they all lost, and they all wisely made their peace with the IPL. Now, England are losing players because of the IPL.

Did you notice how quickly KP accepted he was no longer a part of England's plans for the future? That retirement letter came quick-time....

KP is clearly looking forward to the IPL. He might be the first England casualty to the IPL, but he won't be the last....

[Mail]

Mikey,

Good points duly noted.

I think you are right and I would not be surprised to see Swanny turning out for some IPL team.

We needed to have been more flexible with the IPL.

I cannot imagine any World team not wanting to have Pietersen and as previously mentioned, why drop him in this way especially before the appointment of the new Director of Cricket?

[mikesiva]

'"People tend to look at young talent, match-winners and players whose calendars are free. Pietersen ticks all those attributes," a senior official with a franchise that has won the IPL in the past, said. "He is being portrayed as a bad boy. So he might have a huge point to prove. He might even want to lead the team and say that 'I am not a selfish player'," the official said. With the IPL imposing a cap of nine overseas players, franchises are likely to cut back on spending on foreigners. However, officials point out there are many factors that elevate Pietersen's status. At 33, Pietersen is a senior player. A batsman who can silence the opposition with his explosive batting as well as change gears with a calculated assault. A superb fielder, and a decent offspinner. "He will be a hot property, purely on the basis of his talent. He is a high-quality middle-order batsman. There are not really that many fitting that bill. You have explosive openers, but no one of his talent at No. 4 or 5," a franchise coach said. Pietersen missed out playing the last IPL because of an injury, but was seen around to promote the Delhi Daredevils brand. He had transferred to the franchise from the now defunct Deccan Chargers in 2012. Pietersen had made a grand entry into the IPL. Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him at the auction for the then record price of $1.55m, making him the joint-richest player in the IPL along with his former England team-mate Andrew Flintoff, who was bought at the same price by Chennai Super Kings. Pietersen played just six matches in his first year, but he was handed the captaincy immediately. He returned in 2010 to play seven matches at the back-end of the tournament and was instrumental in Royal Challengers finishing third. For Ray Jennings, the former Royal Challengers' coach, Pietersen was always captaincy material in addition to being a match-winner. "An icon player is leading from the front. KP is a definite game-breaker. He is a very methodical player. He has different ideas. He is a different type of cricketer. When people want to win badly and set high standards, sometimes they are quite difficult to work with. I never had problems with KP. It is a pleasure to work with a guy like that who wants to win all the time," Jennings said. Although franchise officials remain tightlipped about whether the former England captain might fetch over the $2 million Daredevils paid him, they are certain more than one team will be interested in him. Currently, Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad have vacancies and are likely to chase big-name players like Pietersen who could be part of the team's nucleus even if he does not get picked as a captain.'

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-prem ... 16615.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mail]

I wonder who will snap him up.

Interesting Dobell is pushing for answers from the ECB.

[mikesiva]

Delhi takes Pietersen for US$1.5m....

The start of a new road for KP.

[Colin Benjamin]

I am flabbergasted as he is far from the end of his abilities.

However, if you know my posts, you will know that I have insisted that the likes of Pietersen, Trott, Lumb, Keiswetter, Dernbach, Ballance etc should not have played for England for two key reasons.

Firstly apartheid falls and they flock here with our system allowing it to happen. Had apartheid not fallen, all of these guys would be in South Africa enjoying their ill gains. Pietersen mother may have been born here but what has she contributed to this country to have any claim?.

I think this is a very harsh & crude way too look at it. As a black man i don't condone what the apartheid did at all, but S Africa since readmission have been very lucky with their implementation of the quota policy, in which they have many times picked black/coloured players over better white players.

People tend to forget that cricket isn't generally popular with the black population in S Africa. I know a few black S Africans are for a long time i recall them telling me that more black proteas sporting heroes were English premier league footballers Lucas Radebe, Quinton Fortune, Steven Pienaar & Benny McCarthy - instead of white cricket stars like Kallis, Pollock, Steyn etc.

Its only when Ntini was at his career peak, did black proteas star liking cricket more.

But under various black presidents, the SA government have been trying to make sports like cricket representitve of the nations demographics and this unfair policy has forced KP an others to flock to England. Plus too guys like Neil Wager, Grant Elliot & Kruger Van Wyk to New Zealand.

Its like trying to attract indians in guyana/trinidad to play football - when they all about cricket. Dead end.

The mistake CSA have done is not get into the rural black communities & promote to sport from the grassroots level, but it makes no sense punishing the good white players who merit a place on ability.



I'd wager if the ICC was a very strong governing body like FIFA, S Africa could not have implemented quotas at the highest level. Because it is a government implemented policy & we know how FIFA is against government intervention in sport - something ICC don't have the balls or structure to do.