Monday, January 10, 2011

Kevin Piterson

Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE (born 27 June 1980) is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England, and was the captain of the Indian Premier League team Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second season of the IPL. He played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the third season of IPL. In the fourth season of  IPL, he was contracted by Deccan Chargers for US$650,000. He was captain of the England Test and One Day International teams from 4 August 2008 to 7 January 2009 but resigned after just three tests and nine One Day Internationals, following a dispute with England coach Peter Moores, who was sacked the same day. He is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world, and is certainly the most destructive,as he is capable of takng on any bowling.

Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa. He made his first-class debut for Natal in 1997 before moving to England after voicing his displeasure at the racial quota system in place in South Africa. His English mother gave Pietersen eligibility to play for England, and after serving a qualifying period of four years playing at county level, he was called up almost immediately into the national side. He made his international debut in the One Day International match against Zimbabwe in 2004, and his Test match debut in the 2005 Ashes series against Australia the following year. The England team's subsequent reliance on Pietersen since his debut has resulted in only one first-class appearance for Hampshire since 2005, which resulted in Pietersen looking to leave the club in 2010. He subsequenly joined Surrey on loan for the remainder on the 2010 English county cricket season after being dropped by England due to a poor run of form.

Pietersen became the fastest batsman to reach both 1,000 and 2,000 runs in One Day International cricket, and the quickest in terms of time to 5,000 Test runs. He has the highest average of any England player to have played more than 20 innings of one-day cricket. He has the second-highest run total from his first 25 Tests, behind only the Australian Donald Bradman, and was the fastest player, in terms of days, to reach 4,000 Test runs. He became only the third English batsman to top the ICC One Day International rankings, doing so in March 2007. In July 2008, after a century against South Africa, The Times called him "the most complete batsman in cricket" Shane Warne, a close friend, in a September serial for the same newspaper, wrote, "I don't think he has an obvious flaw in his technique.

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