Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen MBE (born 27 June 1980 Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa ) is an English cricketer. He was from early August 2008 to early January 2009, captain of the England Cricket Team.
Youth and Family
Pietersen has an English mother and an Afrikaner father. He enjoyed with his three brothers a strict upbringing and attended Maritzburg College.
Since 2001, Pietersen lives in the UK. In December 2007 he married Jessica Taylor, a member of the now defunct pop vocal group Liberty X.
Sporting career
Pietersen began his cricket career in South Africa where he played from 1997 to 2000 for Natal initially as an off spin bowler, and later more and more as a batsman. In the South African winter of 2000 he played, like many other professionals and, for one season at a niedrigerklassigen English club.
The following year he moved to the English County Championship, first played for Nottinghamshire. In 2005 he moved to Hampshire.
After Pietersen had completed the prescribed waiting period of four years, he was immediately appointed to the England national team. His first One-Day International he played in November 2004, against Zimbabwe, his first Test match in July 2005 against Australia. Since that time, he is a regular player in the England team.
He reached both the number of 1000 and 2000 runs in one- day internationals with the least number of operations at all and stood for a long time at the top of the ranking of the world's best batsmen in one- day internationals.
As the former national team captain Michael Vaughan, the Office gave due form of weakness, Pietersen was appointed as the new captain. However, he lost this office, not his place in the team, after a few months due to a conflict with the coach of the English team, which was also dismissed.
On 31 May 2012 he declared no longer be available for International Limited -over games. Due to the nomination criteria the England team his retreat from One - Day International at the same time also meant the end for the participation in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2012.
After team infighting and his temporary expulsion from the national team came in October 2012 an agreement between him and the ECB, after Pietersen was reinstated in the national team and was nominated for the test selection to India. On the following test series victory, the first in India for 28 years, he had then large share.
Awards
In 2005, Pietersen was nominated as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year as well as the International Cricket Council as One- Day International Player of the Year.