England's loss is the world's gain

The enigmatic and flamboyant Kevin Pietersen announced his retirement from one day & T20 international cricket earlier this week 

Well not quite, Pietersen's statement said;

"After a great deal of thought and deliberation I am announcing my retirement from international one-day cricket," the 31-year-old said. "With the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, approaching 32, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the ICC World Cup in 2015.

"I am immensely proud of my achievements in the one-day game but still wish to be considered for selection for England in Test cricket. For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20."

Reading between the lines it appears Pietersen wanted to continue playing T20 international cricket for England, but what exactly is the selection policy? Hugh Morris' statement clarifies:

"The ECB is disappointed by the timing of Kevin's decision less than four months before we defend our ICC World Twenty20 title. Kevin is a world-class player and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and we look forward to his continued contributions to the Test match side.

"As the programming and planning for ODI and T20 format cricket are very closely linked we have a selection policy that means that any player making himself unavailable for either of the one-day formats rules himself out of consideration for both formats. The selectors will now replace Kevin in both the ODI and the T20 squads."

So what is the actual gain from the ECB selection policy?  The truth in my opinion is the simple fact that this is another in a long line of a series of clashes between Pietersen and the ECB.

 

Steve James hints at the underlying cause to the rift in his book, The Plan which has been serialised in The Telegraph

"The revealing chapter" claims Pietersen has never forgiven the ECB for sacking him as the Captain in 2009. We all know that Pietersen is a complex character, you either love him, or hate him. The ECB did not quite realise what it had let itself in for when making him the captain. The media was divided on whether it was a masterstroke decision, or pure madness, to select such a flamboyant character to lead the team. Pietersen's downfall was attempting to seek the removal of the coach at the time, Peter Moore. It was not the simple fact that Pietersen gave the ultimatum, it was the fact that by raising the issue with Clarke, and bypassing Morris, Pietersen made a huge mistake. There was never going to be a simple and easy solution after that. It ended a few weeks later with Clarke sacking both Pietersen and Moore. Any player is naturally going to be upset when they are stripped of the captaincy. But Pietersen is not the type of person to take the decision lightly, and has allegedly held a grudge since with the ECB hierarchy. Some will say that the ECB made the correct decision, including players like Swann who wrote in his autobiography: "There is no doubt that Kev is a good player, a really fine batsman, but he was never the right man to captain England in my opinion. Some people are better leaders of men and Kev, for all his abundant talent, is not one of those natural leaders" Fast forward to 2012, and things have taken a turn for the worse. Pietersen announced his retirement from one day international cricket, and due to the ECB selection policy he was also retiring from T20 international cricket. Some may think that the selection policy is correct, and the board is focusing on the future of the team, rather than one individual player. On the other hand, you have people like myself who disagree. I am just a mere spectator, with adores the sport. I was brought up in a family where cricket is in your blood, and if you don't like the game then you are not an Indian. When I was a child you had some real characters playing like Botham, Merv Hughes, Shane Warne, and Sourav Ganguly, that made the game interesting. Players that not only had an immense talent, but also had the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what they were going to do next. The ECB wants to compete with it's rivals, namely the BCCI. Who are reveling in the money generated by the Indian Premier League. But by depriving Pietersen the platform to show the world his remarkable, and unique ability, is only playing in to the hands of IPL and potentially the Australian equivalent, The Big Bash. Pietersen and these league owners know that the fans will pay to see him play, and will therefore be be willing to pay a substantial amount of money for his cricketing services. Another good example is Chris Gayle, who caused a massive frenzy in this season's IPL. Spectators were often forgetting that two teams were playing, and were attending the games to see Gayle hitting sixes. Chris, naturally obliged destroying all T20 batting records, and was the highest runs scorer. You can hardly complain when players like Pietersen, and Gayle seek the rich pickings from abroad when they do not have the chance to show their ability on the International stage (in the shorter formats of the game). England's loss is the world's gain...