 Kevin Pietersen - from enfant terrible to England cricket captain
4th Aug 2008 23:00 IST
Agencies
Born of an English mother and an Afrikaner father, in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa, nobody in the world would have imagined that Kevin Pietersen would one day become England cricket captain.
Pietersen's remarkable career took the most dramatic turn today when he was named as England cricket captain who would lead the side in Tests, one-day and Twenty20 matches, starting with the fourth Test against South Africa this week.
The appointment came a day after sudden resignations of Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood as England Test and ODI captains respectively and caps a remarkable rise for the 28-year-old Pietersen, who was viewed as the enfant terrible of English cricket when he made his Test debut against Australia in the 2005 Ashes series.
He has since toned down his outspoken comments - and outrageous haircuts - to become one of the team's most reliable members.
"In choosing a new captain, we were keen to identify a player who could lead the team in all three forms of cricket and bring fresh enthusiasm and ideas to the role of captain," national selector Geoff Miller said at a press conference in Lord’s today.
"Kevin is a world-class player who will command the respect of the dressing room and I am sure that he will be looking to lead from the front."
Pietersen is the eighth best batsman in the International Cricket Council's rankings and one of the few experienced players guaranteed a place in the side.
There is a danger that, like Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara before him, he could find that the burden of leadership hampers his batting style, but Pietersen is a famously focused and driven athlete who has made a career of meeting and exceeding high expectations.
When asked if his batting would be affected by the responsibility of captaincy, Pietersen said: "Time will tell, we will have to wait and see. I hope not. I hope it won't restrict the way I play. I play the way that I play and it's a way that I've been successful so far in my career and it's something that I want to keep really high level."
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