Yet 14 years on, he was back at Headingley on Thursday night, smiling as he walked into the press conference room in the pavilion wearing his new England gear, gilet and all. “What the f*** are you still doing here?” Pietersen said, laughing, when he spotted one familiar face putting a dictaphone on the table, before spending 20 minutes enthusing about his new role.
What would he have said a decade ago if someone had told him he would be working for the ECB? “What do you reckon I would have said?” Pietersen replied. Had he missed it? “Being back in an England dressing room is amazing. It really is amazing.” Not tough anymore, then? “It is an amazing feeling and an honour.”
He briefly alluded to his career being “cut short” by “all the nonsense” that went on, but otherwise insisted that it was best kept in the past. “I’m 46, man. That stuff’s so long gone. I’m a completely different personтАж I’m just here to help Brendon [McCullum], first and foremost. I’m here to help the players try to become the best versions of themselves.”
It came as a shock when McCullum approached Pietersen about the prospect of him joining England’s coaching staff – not least to Pietersen himself, who assumed he was “in trouble” for a tweet or an off-hand comment. He mulled the idea of a role over for “a couple of weeks” before committing to being involved on an “in-and-out” basis over the next 14 months.
He made clear that he did not need this role, and that he is “too busy” to commit to anything longer due to his “pretty mad schedule”. But the prospect of being involved with an England team again proved irresistible, not least when so many of the current generation of players idolised him growing up. “My responsibility is just to be a great person to these guys,” he said.
His appointment is a gamble, and a typical McCullum move. Pietersen has minimal coaching experience beyond a season with Delhi Capitals – even then, he missed some games for a family holiday in the Maldives – and has courted controversy for his whole life, to the extent that some kind of media storm while he is involved with England is an inevitability.
McCullum has now formed what is surely the most high-profile coaching team in England’s history: there are 1,609 international caps between him, Pietersen, Marcus Trescothick, Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel and Sarah Taylor. Top-level experience has its obvious benefits and brings immediate credibility, but also guarantees publicity and attention – both good and bad.
It leaves next year’s edition as a tantalising prospect for him, not least given that the majority of it will be staged back home in South Africa. He played down England’s chances – “we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he told the BBC – but it is obvious that he is relishing the opportunity ahead of him: “It would be amazing if we can achieve success.”
These are still early days in Pietersen’s return to England colours, and the hard work is only just starting, but he has spent his first two weeks in this role beaming from ear to ear. Perhaps it is not so tough being him after all.
Matt Roller is a senior correspondent at Cricinfo. @mroller98
