Kevin Pietersen joins England white-ball coaching staff as ‘mentor’
Kevin Pietersen has been welcomed back into the England fold more than 12 years after the acrimonious end to his international career following one of the most bitter of the national team’s Ashes defeats.
Pietersen, 46, has been appointed ‘specialist mentor’ to the England white-ball teams in the build-up to next year’s 50-over World Cup in South Africa. He will take up his duties as part of the coaching team for the T20 and 50-over games against Sri Lanka this month, series which complete this international summer.
He will work alongside England white-ball coach Brendon McCullum and a coaching team that will include Marcus Trescothick, Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel and Sarah Taylor for the winter white-ball games in Australia and South Africa as well as throughout next summer.
It is a remarkable return for one of England’s greatest yet most divisive cricketers, a player who was the central figure in the huge fall-out that followed the 5-0 thrashing by Australia in the 2013-14 Ashes that led to coach Andy Flower losing his job.
Pietersen never played for England again after that series and went on to be scathingly critical of Flower, the then England captain Alastair Cook and several of his team-mates in his autobiography before finishing his career in county cricket and on the franchise circuit.
Since then he has worked as a commentator, mainly on the Indian Premier League (IPL) he did so much to champion in its early years, while also spending time in wildlife preservation in his native South Africa, and more recently as a social media content creator.
He returns with McCullum looking to build his own white-ball coaching staff to back up captain Harry Brook after losing his job with the England Test team earlier this year and being replaced by his fellow New Zealander Stephen Fleming.
Kevin Pietersen was one of England’s most talented batters in a generation (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
There is no question about Pietersen’s batting pedigree. Over an international career spanning 10 years Pietersen showed his white-ball prowess by playing in 136 one-day internationals and 37 T20 internationals for England, scoring more than 5,500 runs.
He also made the small matter of 8,181 runs in 104 Tests and was a pioneer for many of the modern shots that have become common-place, mainly the left-handed switch hit.
Pietersen has not been afraid to remain critical of the England setup, being particularly damning of the lack of preparation by McCullum’s side and their attitude towards training on tour in India early in 2025.
He also told Cricinfo he was “bitterly disappointed” at Brook’s decision to pull out of the IPL last year because he felt he could fix Brook’s “real big flaw” against spin. Now he will get a chance to do just that when he works with the captain for England.
“I’ve got immense respect for KP and what he’s achieved in the game,” said McCullum in a statement. “He’s had an amazing impact on English cricket, so for someone with his experience, knowledge and stature to want to play a role with this team is a fantastic result.
“I’m particularly excited for our batters to get the opportunity to work with him. KP has a unique understanding of what it takes to perform at the highest level which will be hugely valuable to our players.
“We’ve always respected each other and had a strong appreciation for what the other brings to the game, so I’m really looking forward to working together.”
Kevin Pietersen speaking with Brendon McCullum and Joe Root at Lord’s in 2023 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Pietersen, who was born in Pietermaritzburg and raised in South Africa, added in the ECB statement: “I am immensely proud to have been asked to help this team on their journey to win a World Cup in South Africa.
“Putting on the England uniform again for the first time since 2014 is a profound honour and a deeply special moment. We have an incredibly talented white-ball squad and I am excited to get in the trenches and work relentlessly hard with these players to maximise their potential.
“To be part of Brendon’s think-tank over the next 12 months is a fantastic opportunity and I cannot wait to get started.”
The return of a breathtaking talent but divisive figure
Time may be a healer, but news that Kevin Pietersen is to become a special mentor to Brendon McCullum’s England white-ball team is still a huge surprise.
Yes, Pietersen has re-built relationships with many of those with whom he so spectacularly fell out when his England career came to a controversial end in 2014, including the captain, Andrew Strauss, he demeaned in text messages sent to opponents South Africa in 2012.
But there are others who remain prominent in English cricket who retain strong antagonism towards a divisive figure who lashed out in every direction in his autobiography after England decided to move on without him following a crushing Ashes defeat.
To be fair, McCullum has looked beyond Pietersen’s criticism of his methods early last year and clearly feels, as mentor, he can benefit a generation of white-ball batters he helped inspire with his pioneering approach to stroke-play that helped make him an England great.
In the experience of this observer there have been many young England batters in recent years who have cited Pietersen as an inspiration when they first made their bow.
Kevin Pietersen pioneered the ‘switch hit’, where the right-handed batter switched his stance to bat left-handed and throw bowlers off their line (Tom Shaw/Getty Images)
There is no question he did change attitudes towards shots like the ‘switch hit’ which, when he first unveiled it against Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (in 2006) and then New Zealand’s Scott Styris (2008), attracted criticism, notably from the former West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding.
But it was Pietersen’s determination to join those from other countries cashing in on Indian riches when what has become the biggest competition in world cricket, the IPL, first emerged that led to the breaking down of his relationship with England, notably Flower.
No doubt he will point to the fact England’s best players are now allowed to go to the IPL with the ECB’s blessing and that even Flower is now a leading IPL coach as justification for his stance then and his feeling that he had been unfairly treated by the ECB.
Yet at the time his attitude made him a considerable man apart within the England team and soured the last few years of what had been a magnificent international career.
Pietersen never really recovered from the controversy over those WhatsApp messages about Strauss two years before his eventual banishment that led to him being given a final warning over his conduct before he was ‘re-integrated’ back into the side.
With that in mind, and the fact he was by 2014 a declining talent, it came as no real surprise when England vowed to start again without him and, instead, back captain Alastair Cook who would never have been able to play with Pietersen again after the Ashes falling out.
Yet the backlash to Pietersen’s sacking was brutal and looked to have ended his cricketing relationship with his adopted country, with whom he had always seemed to have something of a marriage of convenience.
Now KP is back. It will be fascinating to watch how he interacts with McCullum and those players who will only know him from footage of his at times breathtaking talent.