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Pietersen blames tight schedule for early retirement. posted under: England | All news |
 Kevin Pietersen, who recently retired from limited over cricket matches, has blamed England’s unbelievably tight schedule as the main reason for his stepping down, but also added that he would like to play the world T20 in Sri Lanka later this year.
The batsman launched a barely veiled attack on the ECB in the press conference after day 4 of England’s 3rd test match against visitors West Indies. He said that the schedule was making him fall out of love with the game. He also said that the ECB would “change the rules” and allow him to participate in the upcoming World T20, when England defend their crown. The ECB right now, are afraid that if they allow their players to pick and choose what formats they would play, ODIs would be severely hit, with a lot of high-profile players calling it quits. Pietersen hinted signs of wanting to spend more time with his family as well. Indian captain MS Dhoni is the only player who has played more games that KP in the last seven years.
At the conference, Pietersen was quoted saying:
“I've said I'll play the T20 World Cup. If they want me to play the T20 World Cup, I'll play the T20 World Cup. But contracts are contracts. I'd had enough of the schedule. I can't carry on doing everything. I play every single form of cricket that there is. I play the IPL and I've the Champions League in October. Apart from MS Dhoni, I've played the most days of international cricket over the past seven years. There comes a time when some form of the game has to be taken out of my schedule. One-day cricket was it.
“It is a shame, but that is schedules we have. If the schedules weren't like that, or I played for another country where you had months and months occasionally to rest and recuperate, or if I had the opportunities to be rested things might be different. But you don't get those opportunities when you play for England. So I had to make a decision. You know what that decision is. I can't play at my peak - I can't keep on playing every single game and enjoying every single game - when I have to play every single form of cricket, or when I have to train every single day. You fall out of love with it. And I want to still play cricket until I'm 35.”
England’s schedule this summer is difficult to fathom. After finishing with the West Indies, they play Australia, South Africa and Scotland this summer. English players who play all three formats won’t be able to spend even 2 weeks at home between October and April and players involved in the World T20 will not even get that much. |
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