Pietersen to quit English game for conservation work
Kevin Pietersen will bid farewell to English cricket this summer when his stint in the Natwest Blast playing for Surrey comes to an end.
Pietersen revealed yesterday that this would be his last summer playing in England, as his life moves in different directions.
He has two more years to run on his Big Bash contract with the Melbourne Stars, and has signed up as one of the overseas players in the new South Africa T20 Global league that launches this year.
Pietersen turns 37 next week, and even though he intends to carry on playing around the world, he will not be available for county cricket next summer as he wants to spend the time building a new house near Kruger National Park and become more involved in wildlife conservation.
“I reckon this will be my last season playing in England. Next year I am building a house and the whole of the English summer I will be at my house in South Africa so I will not be back in England,” he said. “My conservation work is at the time when I should be playing here and that work is more important to me.
“I love Surrey. When they came to me with the offer of playing there instead of the Caribbean, I was happy. Surrey have been so good to me. When I go back there training in a couple of weeks, it will be great. I can’t wait.”
Pietersen’s first game for Surrey this summer is against Essex at the Kia Oval on July 19, and he is available until the end of the tournament.
“I am still playing some of the best cricket of my career,” he said. “I am 36 and I am fitter than I even was when I was playing for England. As long as I am fit and enjoying batting, I will play on.”
Pietersen pulled out of commen- tating on the Ashes this winter to play in the Twenty20 league in South Africa that was launched yesterday in London.
He is one of eight ‘marquee’ overseas signings, with Jason Roy and Eoin Morgan among the others. The new league replaces the South Africa T20 competition that was mired in a corruption scandal.
The new league franchises have been bought by owners with interest in the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League, and the competition, which runs from the start of November until Dec 16, squeezes the international calendar further.
The two most iconic teams, based in Johannesburg and Cape Town, were bought by IPL owners. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who already owns the Kolkata Knight Riders and Trinidad Knight Riders, has expanded his franchise to Cape Town, while the company that owns the Delhi Daredevils bought the Johannesburg team.
For Pietersen, the influx of England players to the IPL this year has justified the stance he took nearly 10 years ago when he became one of the first to play in the tournament. It contributed to the breakdown in his relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“This is what got me in trouble with the big bosses, but now it is being applauded and they are willing to risk injuries to players to get the experience of playing in the IPL,” he said. “I love seeing it. I came back from the second IPL promoting it, saying we had to get more English players into these set-ups, but I was painted as the bad guy. Now they are pumping up what I was doing and saying it is a good thing.”