Cricket: Pietersen ponders one-day return

England batsman wants packed schedule to change though.

LONDON:

Kevin Pietersen has said there is still a chance he could play ‘white ball’ cricket for England again despite retiring from limited-overs internationals.

However, the South Africa-born batsman, who still plays Tests, said it would need a drastic change to England’s packed schedule for him to consider a return for the One-Day International and Twenty20 matches for his adopted country.

“I’ve had my wife, mother, dad, mother-in-law, brothers and my best mates all saying to me ‘don’t you wish you were out there batting against Australia [in the ongoing ODI series]?’ Pietersen told the Daily Mail. “And I’ve said to them I haven’t missed it at all. But maybe all I needed was a break. I’ve played a lot of cricket in the last seven years.”

Asked if he would reconsider his retirement from ODIs and Twenty20, the 32-year-old said, “I’m a lot older and more mature, so you never know. I’ll never say no, but the schedule would have to be a hell of a lot different for me to come back.”

Pietersen, one of the undoubted ‘box-office’ stars of world cricket, called time on his international limited-overs career when the England management denied him his wish to carry on playing Twenty20s while quitting the 50-over format.

The request was turned down amid concerns that, otherwise, the 50-over side would be weakened by several players following Pietersen’s lead.

Batsman hopes for World T20 inclusion

Meanwhile, Pietersen, man of the tournament when England won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean two years ago, still harbours hopes of helping the side defend their title in Sri Lanka in September.

“I still hope there might be a compromise for the World Twenty20. The squad hasn’t been announced. I would love to play in that and defend our title. If it happens, great, but I’m not holding my breath.”

Pietersen’s critics insist he could have kept playing for England in all three major formats and still have given himself a break if he had opted out of the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). But Pietersen said expecting him, or other world stars, to miss the IPL was unrealistic and that his participation was not simply a matter of cash.

“Big players want to play in front of big audiences. You want to hear your name chanted by 50,000 people. The window for that has been created by the other boards but unfortunately not ours.”

England have so far coped well without Pietersen and lead Australia 3-0 in a five-match ODI series ahead of Tuesday’s finale.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2012.