Kevin Pietersen Spills The Beans On The Biggest Regret Of His Career

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen may not have had the best time as skipper, but he was one of the best batsmen produced by the country. Kevin Pietersen was one of the few, who could equally flourish across formats and amassed over 13000 international runs. In Charlie Webster’s Podcast, Pietersen opened up on the biggest regret of his illustrious career.

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Kevin Pietersen’s final international fixture was the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney of the 2013-14 leg. Following England’s successful Ashes defence in 2013, they travelled to Australia later that year where they lost 5-0, relinquishing the urn. The English selectors made the South African born the scapegoat of the shattering defeat, in which he averaged only 29.40 during the series.

Kevin Pietersen revealed that the only thing he wishes to have played his farewell international game in the United Kingdom. The 40-year old stated that, having played over 100 Tests, hence the way he was sidelined, he was not glad with that.

“The one thing is I wish I was able to say goodbye to English cricket with a game in the UK, to finish playing for England. I played over 100 Test matches and at the time when I was finishing I think I was the leading run scorer in all forms of cricket so to be cast aside in the way I was cast aside is one thing,” the South African born stated.

Pietersen believed it would have felt nice to thank the Barmy Army by performing for one last time in front of them. He played an integral role in catapulting England to their maiden ICC title in 2010 when they lifted the T20 World Cup in West Indies by beating Australia in the final. The right-handed batsman received the award for the man of the tournament that year.

“It would have been so nice to give English cricket a thank you and all the fans and spectators a thank you by being able to bat one last time in front of them,”

I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong by wanting to play the IPL: Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen did not have particularly amicable relations with the England Cricket Board (ECB) primarily due to his willingness to play in IPL. The 40-year old revealed that everything that he wanted always got him in trouble during his playing days.

“People only have to look at what has happened in English cricket and they realise I was an annoying alarm clock that was going off way too early for the ECB. And every single thing I was wanting then that got me into trouble, is happening now and has been happening for the last three or four years,” Kevin Pietersen said.

Pietersen admitted that he was not doing anything wrong by opting to miss international games by wanting to play in the cash-rich league to make as much money.

“I knew I was right and I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong by wanting to play the IPL, by wanting to miss cricket matches for England to make sure I cashed in, in India, and made as much money as I could from my career,” 

Kevin stated that he knew that career is short hence going for money and accumulating as much as he could, was the need. Pietersen referred to Andrew Strauss’ admission of regretting not being able to handle things in a better manner then and he also expressed remorse at things not being workable.

“Your career is short and why shouldn’t you? I knew all that stuff and I was the only one in that situation but it takes a little bit of time and you’ve seen what Strauss has said over the last couple of years about me and my career and how he made mistakes,” Pietersen added.

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