Sport, unlike a movie, has no script. People would never watch it otherwise. Even so, there is the odd sportsman whose career strikes such chords in the imagination that it is hard not to feel that someone, somewhere, must have made him up. English cricket has certainly not been lacking in heroes for the past ten years. A decade ago, few fans would have imagined in their wildest dreams that England might end up three-times Ashes victors, and briefly top the Test rankings.
Andrew Flintoff, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss and Graeme Swann: these are names fit to rank with any in English cricket history. The present captain—a clean-cut former chorister who just cannot help himself scoring centuries—could hardly look more like a hero if he tried. So, there is only one possible candidate: Kevin Pietersen.
The path to greatness is familiar one from countless myths. The hero is born in obscurity and then has to overcome numerous obstacles. Pietersen, to a degree exceptional in this age of carefully monitored youth programmes, came to Test cricket by a long and circuitous route. While he is hardly the first South African-born player to have ended up playing for England, the extent of turbulence that surrounded his progress from youth cricket to the ultimate stage was certainly out of the ordinary. This, in the context of a sport as obsessed with its own past as cricket, is sufficient to mark Pietersen out as someone exceptional: a man unshaped by the traditions that generally mould most cricketers. Certainly, no other South African-born player has managed to swat away the entire troubled legacy of apartheid with quite the insouciance shown by Kevin Pietersen. Many whites, no doubt, have been frustrated by the racial quota system applied by the cricket authorities in South Africa; but none have thought to describe it as “heart-breaking”. Given even the faintest hint of racism on Pietersen’s part, the word would surely have become a millstone around his neck, dooming his claims to greatness for good; but no such hint has ever been found. Pietersen, as his burgeoning love of India and the Indian fans demonstrates, is the very opposite of a racist: a man for whom race, quite simply, is an irrelevance.
Kevin Pietersen deserves to be recognized as one of the most captivating cricketers ever to pull on an England shirt. His flamboyant strokeplay has been at the heart of many of England’s finest performances in the past decade. A brazen belief in his own ability, moments of outrageous unorthodoxy and, at times, a surprising vulnerability on and off the field have all combined to give him great box-office appeal. Even in his final series as an England player he was the top run getter with 294 runs and proved himself to be, by far, the best player in that series , despite being far from his best. For many cricket fans, no name sparks more excitement. But his celebrity status, individualistic streak and outspoken ways often clashed with the England cricket authorities who prefer their star names to be more malleable and conservative. The English media, which has at times been vitriolic – not to say personal—about his rebellious streak has generally recognized that he has few peers.
A statement made by him from one of his interviews pretty much sums up the way he played his game: “I can’t help people thinking that I’m arrogant. I think a lot of great sportsmen out there have that little bit of something to them that makes them try and be the best and want to be the best and wake up every single day wanting to improve. I call it confidence. “
While detractors would say that this “arrogance” brought about his downfall and eventual sacking from the England set-up, I would say this “confidence” was the reason he scored 13779 runs in all formats of the game combined which makes him the highest run getter across all formats for England. Like Achilles, Pietersen illustrates a timeless truth: heroes are worth the trouble.
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