Pietersen's England career in crisis

[SachDan]

England will hold talks with Kevin Pietersen at this week to tell him he must sign for a county next season or risk missing out on a central contract. Former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan last night echoed the private fears within the England management that Pietersen is in danger of allowing outside and commercial distractions to blunt his focus on scoring runs for his country. Yesterday, Pietersen should have been playing in domestic cricket's biggest day of the year, Twenty20 Finals day, but he was reduced to putting his observations on Twitter. Hampshire refused to pick him after his insistence earlier this season that he was leaving them because they are based too far from his home in Chelsea. More confusion may be on the horizon as, while the ECB will stipulate that players must be aligned to a county in order to qualify for a central contract, that requirement may be hard to fulfil. While Middlesex, who are due to open talks with his agent this week, and Surrey are the clubs closest to home, at The Oval, at least, they are not convinced of the value of signing a player who will hardly ever play for them, if at all. They may yet find that when it comes to the detail of negotiation, he may decline to place on the table the most obvious benefit to them, 10 per cent of his near £1million-a-year Indian Premier League contract. Vaughan, who gave Pietersen his chance at Test level, remains convinced the star still has the potential to be 'England's best ever - a legend'. 'Kevin could score 40 Test hundreds if he wants to,' said Vaughan. 'He could be England's Sachin Tendulkar.' Further, he believes England can only retain the Ashes this winter if Pietersen is at the peak of his powers. Vaughan said: 'For England to win in Australia, Kevin has to be on top of his game. He is the one batsman the Aussies fear. If he plays as well as he can, he not only gets big hundreds but he gets them fast and he intimidates bowlers. I just hope he's still got that same drive and desire to want to go out and score hundreds for England as he did when he first came into the side. 'The game has changed. Players have many more distractions than ever before. There is more money in the game, more commercial deals for someone like Kevin. His brand is out there and it is very successful. But announcing he was leaving Hampshire halfway through the season was strange. He didn't need to do it at that stage. 'At Edgbaston, it was obvious his rhythm and technique are not what they were and the only way to get them back is batting in the middle.' Chief among Pietersen's critics has been Geoffrey Boycott. On the eve of the Birmingham Test, the ex-England opener said: 'There is some concern about whether he is focused enough on the international game and not other things going on in his life. There is nothing wrong with his batting technique. It is about what is going on between his ears.' After his battling 80 against Pakistan in Birmingham, after which he was still 17 months without a century in any form of cricket, Pietersen said: 'I probably took some of my form in the World T20 for granted and I've learned a few lessons. I've just got to keep working really hard.' Vaughan has no doubt, however, of what Pietersen can achieve in the game if he rediscovers his form and focus and recommends he uses Tendulkar as his personal role model. 'Sachin has all the money he will ever need, yet he showed he still has the drive and ambition to go on and get a double-hundred against Sri Lanka at this stage of his career. 'Does Kevin want to be remembered as one of the best players ever to have played for England, or just a very good player?' Link

[Serani]

I wouldnt say its really in a crisis...he wil sign for Surrey or Middlesex, no big problem.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Manny_Pacquiao]

:hysterical: Lets talk when he gets to 40 International 100s (tests+odi) ... let alone 40 hundreds in just test matches .... current tally is 16+7

the age is against him, but i dont think there is much difference in the career progression. tendulkar had 17 hundreds and 20 fifties after 64 tests. KP currently has 16 hundreds and 20 fifties. basically the same isnt it. KP has been awful lately but he is a phenomenal batsman who is up there with the best in the game, and easily england's best batsman of the last 5 years. england's tendulkar indeed.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Septimius Severus]

1yr bump fail prediction by OP. Think The Kevin is back

[Trichromatic]

1yr bump fail prediction by OP. Think The Kevin is back

What did OP predict? :dontknow: Fail Bump by Septimius?

[Sidhoni]

Septimius :fail::stupid: