If anybody thought Kevin Pietersen’s appointment as a “specialist mentor” with England’s white-ball team was a token position, he made clear from the off that he means business.
On his first morning with the full squad in Southampton on Monday, he gave a speech in the dressing-room before training reminding the players of their responsibilities – both on and off the field.
Coach Brendon McCullum, who approached one of the most divisive figures in English cricket’s long and storied history to come into the environment ahead of next year’s World Cup, revealed: “He said we need to give ourselves every opportunity to try and get to the level and get to the achievements that we want to. And that includes a lot of the responsibilities that we make socially and off the field too.”
Of course, this comes weeks after Brydon Carse became the latest player to be caught up in off-field controversy outside Molly Malone’s in Derby.
Carse would have been in the squad preparing for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka that kick off with a T20 here on Tuesday were he now not being investigated by the Cricket Regulator.
Brendon McCullum says he wants Pietersen to ‘challenge’ his methods (Photo: Getty)Pietersen, though, is a man who knows how it feels to be in the glare of the public spotlight for the wrong reasons after he was effectively blackballed by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash in Australia.
Seen as a disruptive influence by the ECB, whose judgment was perhaps clouded by the “textgate” affair two years earlier, Pietersen’s fine international career was brought to a halt early.
Seeing him back in England training gear in Southampton was, in many ways, a great comeback story for a man who clearly still loves the game and has a lot to offer.
For most of Monday morning, he stood at the end of the nets talking to various players and McCullum. There were no interventions in the actual nets, just what appeared to be relaxed chats – the longest of which was with Ben Duckett, who averaged just 8.80 in the recently-concluded Test series against Pakistan.
Pietersen also spent time in the middle at the Utilita Bowl, watching at close quarters as Sarah Taylor put Jos Buttler through various wicketkeeping drills with a tennis ball.
Taylor has been brought in by England across all formats this summer as a fielding and wicketkeeping consultant and has been lauded for her work, particularly with Jamie Smith, whose keeping looks to have gone up another level in recent months.
What Pietersen’s impact will be remains to be seen. Yet when he received the call from McCullum a few weeks ago offering him the job, he thought he was joking. He wasn’t the only one, with the maverick batter’s appointment dividing opinion.
Pietersen was seen having a long conversation with Ben Duckett (Photo: Getty)Michael Vaughan, whose legacy as an England captain owes much to Pietersen’s heroics during the 2005 Ashes, has conceded bringing him into the white-ball set-up is a “risk”.
McCullum described the 46-year-old as a “big personality”. But he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.
For McCullum, the equation is simple. He believes Pietersen can help England win next year’s 50-over World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
“The initial conversation was ‘would you be keen to help us challenge for a World Cup?” he said. “After his initial shock, I think that really kind of got him going a little bit.”
Key to the appointment was recognition from McCullum that Pietersen could be the dissenting voice inside the camp that was perhaps lacking during last winter’s Ashes tour of Australia.
He has certainly been critical in public of the way McCullum operates, notably laying into the lack of training during a white-ball tour of India last year.
He said back then: “Play golf, have the best of your time. But crikey, you get paid to win games of cricket. You don’t get paid to play golf. This isn’t a golf tour, this is a cricket tour.”
It wasn’t the only time he laid into McCullum, white-ball captain Harry Brook or England.
Yet whereas the regime at the end of Pietersen’s playing career effectively banished him after marking him out as an outspoken, disruptive influence, McCullum sees his honesty as a plus.
“He mentioned ‘I’ve been quite critical of you guys in the past’ and I said ‘I have no problem with that mate’. There’s parts of it I agree with and parts which I won’t agree with and that’s fine.
“I don’t want him to be buried in one specific skillset, I want him to look across the environment and challenge me privately around ways we can improve or things we can do differently.”
Although he denied it, this very much looks like McCullum learning from last winter’s Ashes, where the environment of the Test team was criticised for being ridden with group think. A lack of critical voices in McCullum’s ear was seen as a key reason for the humiliating 4-1 series defeat.
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Interview: Ben Duckett: Nigel Farage texts me when I do well for England Analysis: Nine England problems Stephen Fleming has to fix before they face South AfricaYet having been sacked from the Test job in July, McCullum is going well with the white-ball teams. England are ranked No 1 in the world in T20s after beating India 4-0 in July. They also beat the same opposition 2-1 in the ODI series that followed.
Things are going well for a change. McCullum hopes having Pietersen on board can keep that going.
It’s a risk. But one he feels is worth it.
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