Friday, 1 June 2012

Kevin Pietersen's Retirement Master Stroke

Kevin Pietersen has surprised everybody with his sudden decision to retire from international limited overs cricket. 31 year old Pietersen made this announcement 4 months prior to the World T20 in Sri Lanka where England have to defend their title. Kevin Pietersen is one of the mainstays in limited overs cricket for England and the decision is being criticized by most. But the decision looks like a masterstroke where Pietersen has clearly indicated his priorities and probably the priorities of other cricketers too in the future.

Kevin Pietersen played 127 ODI's for England scoring 4184 runs at an average of 41.84 with 9 hundreds and a best of 130 against Pakistan. In T20's he played 36 T20's scoring 1176 runs at an average of 37.93. Pietersen had a decent record in limited overs for England but then why did he take this call when he is just 31 years of age?

At present cricket is going through a phase where cricket purists are billing test cricket as the ultimate form of cricket which cannot be compared with T20 or One day cricket while the masses are loving T20 particularly the IPL. In the middle of all this Pietersen, member of the no. 1 test team in the world has decided to continue playing test cricket but stop playing one day and T20 cricket but at the same time he has not decided to retire from the IPL so in a way he has decided to continue to play the format loved by the people and also earn the big money that IPL provides.

Kevin Pietersen has made both the cricket purists as well as his bank accounts swell with pride. Cricket enthusiasts will boast about how Pietersen ditched ODI and T20 for the ultimate form of cricket, i.e. Test cricket while Pietersen will be busy making money from the annual affair IPL and will also gain respect as a middle order batsman of the no. 1 test side in the world.

So there is no doubt that the retirement call from Kevin Pietersen is no less than a masterstroke. And maybe upcoming players would also go this way. Test cricket will always be the most respected one while T20 will retain its mass appeal. In the middle of all this its the the ODI's that are bound to suffer.