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HOME > PLAYERS > Kevin Pietersen Kevin Pietersen
Profile In less than six months Kevin Pietersen became a phenomenon in English cricket. Brash and bold, the 25-year-old is yet not quite English. He hails from South Africa, dyes his hair weird and glares back at Glenn McGrath. Disillusioned by South Africa's 'positive discrimination' quota system, Pietersen got a lease of life when Nottinghamshire's coach Clive Rice - former South Africa captain - asked him to join the county. Pietersen grabbed the chance. He scored five centuries and a couple of double-hundreds in his first season. After four years of troubled relationship with the English club, where Jason Gallian, his captain, chucked his kit over the balcony and broke his bats, Pietersen had finally made a foray into international cricket. He was selected on England's tour of South Africa. It was the irony of fate - Pietersen played the first big international match against the country he dreamt of playing for as a kid. Unfortunately for South Africa, the irony didn't end there. He upset his former countrymen by hitting three centuries against them at the start of the year and then pointedly kissing his England helmet to underline his new sense of allegiance. Pietersen scored 454 runs in seven matches at the average of 151.63 to grab the 'man of the series' award. The 'mass hate' reaction when Pietersen first stepped at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, in English colours was heightened by the end of the tour. "It was cut-throat stuff," he later admitted. "My parents were in shock - my mother was crying when they were swearing and shouting 'traitor'. People were hysterical." In England's second ODI against Australia in the NatWest Tri-series Pietersen hit eight fours and four towering sixes for 91 undefeated runs from a mere 65 deliveries, as England beat the world champions by three wickets. The right-hander went into the match with an average of 139.50 and had upped that to 162.25 by the end. Pietersen made his Test debut against Australia at Lord's of all places, and responded with a pair of hard-hitting fifties in a losing cause. Six dropped catches in the Ashes series appeared to have dented his brash confidence, but with the series at stake, he once again showed his unswerving eye for the limelight by clubbing a phenomenal 158 on the final day at The Oval, to secure the draw that England needed for a first Ashes triumph in 18 years. First to congratulate him on his feat was Shane Warne, his good friend and captain at Hampshire, whom Pietersen had joined at the start of the season after three eventful and fructuous years at Nottinghamshire. On October 11, 2005, Pietersen was named the International Cricket Council's (ICC) One-Day International Player of the Year and the Emerging Player of the Year.
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