Cricket Scandals: How a Text from Kevin Pietersen Ruined His Entire Cricketing Career?
Cricket has never been far from controversy, as it sometimes emerges for players sometimes. But a controversy involving stars like Kevin Pietersen would be one that many fans couldn't think was true.
Among all the modern-day scandals that have taken place in the game, only a few of them come close to the debate and disappointment which was faced by Kevin Pietersen, it even led to the end of his career. Pietersen, a batsman who was filled with class and flair, ended up being forgotten by the team when he was at his prime. Let’s now take a look at the Textgate scandal, which led to the downfall of Kevin Pietersen.
The Rise of Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen was born in 1980 in South Africa, and he surely had a passion for cricket since his childhood. But during those days, South Africa had a quota system, due to which Kevin didn’t receive many opportunities to be a part of the team or even play domestically. His father was South African, while his mother was English, making him a citizen of both South Africa and England.
Thus, to move with his cricket career, Kevin Pietersen thought it to be great to move to England, and this happened in 2000. His approach to the sport was right, as he got a chance to play for England in 2005, where he made his debut against Australia. Within 5 years of shifting from his birth country, Pietersen had started to shine.
He made his debut during the Ashes and ended up scoring 57 and 64 runs respectively in the match. Pietersen was not only the star of England, but he also remained the star of the series, scoring 473 runs in 10 innings at an average of 52.55, and it was just his debut series. He also helped England to win the Ashes after a massive gap of 18 years.
In his Test career, he ended up scoring 8181 runs in 104 matches at an average of 47.28, with 23 centuries and 35 half-centuries. He also dominated in the ODI format for the team, scoring 4440 runs in 125 innings at an average of 40.73, with 9 centuries and 25 half-centuries.
Amidst all this, the Indian Premier League also started in 2008, and it was known as the money-making league at that time, too. In 2009, Pietersen was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping price of 1.55 million US dollars, and it came out to be the highest bid. Despite making his debut a few years back, he was the highest-paid English player in the IPL, and none of them came even close to him.
Early Signs of Friction
With Pietersen getting a lot of fame and a rise in his early stages, this may have put a sense of jealousy among his teammates, which led to friction in the locker room. The England Cricket Board also said that Pietersen was arrogant in his initial stages, which was seen when he was appointed as the captain of the team.
In 2008, just 4 years after making his debut, he was appointed as the team’s captain, but that opportunity didn’t last long. He had some clashes with the coach Peter Moores, as it was reported that Kevin Pietersen didn’t like the coaching methods of Moores, and he wanted his removal. When the ECB intervened in this, they sacked Pietersen as a captain and Moores as the team’s coach.
Although Kevin Pietersen was a player on the team, there were some issues between him and the team management. But he was not just having issues with the management, as his own teammates were jealous of him. Michael Vaughan, who was the captain of England, also talked about the incident in 2020.
Talking about this, Vaughan said:
I think there was a lot of jealousy. And the players will completely deny it now but I think there was at the time when Kevin was on a massive contract.
Michael Vaughan also said that players like Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, and many more were whispering against Pietersen, while the latter stood alone.
The Textgate Scandal (2012)
With all the issues standing between Kevin Pietersen and the England team, his performances were the main reason why England’s batting line-up was at its full strength. Then, in 2012, South Africa went on a tour to England. This three-match series was a chance for the Proteas to dethrone England from the number one spot in the Test rankings.
Pietersen was going through all the stress of the locker room and management issues with him, which may have affected his performance in the first Test. As a result, he scored just 42 and 16 runs respectively in the game, and England ended up losing by an innings and 12 runs.
Another incident that took place during this Test series was a parody Twitter account, named KP Genius was created. This account tweeted about criticising Kevin Pietersen every now and then, and to everyone’s surprise, later the ECB even stepped in to take a look at this account and who was involved in using the same.
Amidst all this, Pietersen tried to focus on the second Test, where England was able to draw the game. Kevin Pietersen gave his best for the team once again, as he scored 149 runs and even took 4 wickets combined in the game, which helped him to win the Player of the Match award. But no one was prepared for what was about to come next.
After the match, it was reported that Kevin Pietersen was having conversations with the South African players. And these conversations were against the then England captain, Andrew Strauss, and he also shared tips with them on how they would be able to dismiss Strauss in the game. With this incident, the ECB stepped in, and Pietersen was now in big trouble.
For the final Test match, England had delayed their playing XI list for hours. Before the game, Kevin Pietersen was given a few hours to prove that he didn’t share the team secrets with the South African players. To this, he apologised and also said that his messages were taken out of context by the team and its management.
Although he tried his best to clarify, he was still not included in England’s line-up for the final Test. In his place, Jonny Bairstow made his way to the team, but England still ended up losing the final Test and also their spot at the top of the ICC Test rankings.
Following this, Kevin Pietersen tried his best to make his way back to the English line-up and still missed the T20 World Cup 2012. Still, Pietersen was able to mark his return in the historic 2012 India series, where England defeated India in an away series by 2-1. Kevin Pietersen played a crucial role, as he scored 338 runs in 7 innings at an average of 48.28.
Ashes Whitewash & Final Fallout (2013-14)
Several nails were already put up on the cricket career of Kevin Pietersen, and the final blow came with the 2013-14 Ashes, which was to be played in Australia. Kevin Pietersen was unable to find his form and didn’t manage to score well for the team. He scored just 294 runs in 10 innings at an average of 29.4, raising questions about his form and selection.
But, this series was even more historic for England, as they suffered a whitewash, losing all 5 matches. Following this, Kevin Pietersen was dropped from the line-up and eventually never came back to the English team. Another fact which should be noted is that despite scoring 294, he was among the top scorers for England in the Ashes series.
Towards the start of 2014, the England Cricket Board announced that Kevin Pietersen would no longer be a part of the international team. Eventually, he would go on and announce his retirement from the international formats. Several fans questioned this decision by the board to drop their best batsman at the time when the team was already struggling. But some say that the Textgate scandal played a major role in the end of his career.
Comments