Kevin Pietersen still retains hope of playing for England

Kevin Pietersen says that he has still not given up on the idea of playing for England once again. In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, Pietersen opens up about his regrets, his legacy, his favorite cricket shot and a lot more.

Do you feel betrayed by England?

No, no, no, I had an unbelievably amazing career. I don't feel betrayed at all. It's the only route I have known, here in England. An opportunity to come to England, to play professional cricket, I didn't believe or realise that I'd end up with a career that I've had. I've lived the dream for years and years and years.

It's a question about betrayal because of some little patches where I've been unhappy and a few things that have gone wrong.

But the majority of the time it's been amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I've played cricket all around the world. I've played at Lord's, Surrey's my home ground, I've played at all the South African grounds, the Indian grounds, the West Indian grounds, Sri Lankan grounds, the New Zealand grounds, the Australian grounds. You name it, I've been there.

I've ticked all the boxes and I've won so many trophies with England. Why on earth would I sit here and say I have been betrayed? No chance.

You are the highest run-scorer for England, you are known as an innovator in cricket with the switch hit and the public still rate you highly - was it simply a clash of personalities or jealousy or misunderstandings that caused things to go so wrong with your some of your England team mates?

We'll leave the team mates out of this for now and we'll just talk about the coach (Flower). The coaching issue was a big issue. The coach didn't like me. Coach wanted me out. At any opportunity that he got he would collect his notes and he'd eventually get me one day. It's incredibly unfortunate that it ended the way it ended. But I had an amazing journey.

But you've said in the book the team mates played a part in it.

The team mates played a part in it because they were allowed to play a part in it. But a decent man manager, a decent coach would have sorted the situation out and none of this would ever have happened. If a great coach was in charge of England, none of this would have happened.

There have been numerous South-African born players who have represented England, why do you feel you polarise opinion so much?

(Loud sigh, takes a deep breath and stares at ceiling for a few seconds thinking about his answer) "I don't know, I haven't got a clue. It's maybe the way that I played. Maybe the way I played the game. Maybe the weight of expectation that I carried every single time that I batted. So on days I was going to let people down and people were going to be so frustrated with me. On other days I was going to make people so happy with stuff that I did.

(In a) world of social media, people's voices can be heard straight away (he said snapping his fingers). The world has changed. Who knows? You have to look at Beefy (Ian Botham) - what Beefy got up to. Imagine if social media had been around with Beefy.

Everybody's got an opinion and not everybody is going to be liked. But you have to live with that. You have to understand that. And when you understand that, then you're cool. I love Twitter.

Bearing in mind the turmoil you've gone through with the ECB, in hindsight do you regret deciding to represent England and not South Africa?

Never, no chance, absolutely none. I've loved the journey. It's been the most amazing experience.

Do you feel in this day and age, officials want athletes to be robots? Because as soon as a player has an opinion, all hell breaks loose.

With some coaches yeah. Bad coaches. Bad boards, for sure yeah. They want the characters, they want the personalities on the field, they want the headlines, they want the guys to perform and they will very happily accept all the big endorsements and the companies that will sponsor them.

But goodness, anybody who dares say anything, other than strict regime line, you get in trouble. Unfortunately, you can't have the two. You can't have the maverick or the great player who does extraordinary things on the field and then have a choir boy off it. It just doesn't work.

Do you feel you might have been better off pursuing a career in an individual sport like tennis or golf - as then your opinions would not have had such career-ending consequences?

No. I've had the most amazing experiences. I've won an Ashes in England. I've won an Ashes in Australia. I won another Ashes in England. I won a World Cup with the team in the Caribbean. I got to number one in the world with the team. Nah (shaking his head). Absolutely not.

But you know what, I might be in the Ryder Cup in 2016 if my golf keeps improving the way it is (laughing). But that's a team sport - no, no, no, no! PGA (championship), possibly. I'm getting good. My tennis is not so good. So we won't do Wimbledon. Augusta, Pebble Beach - all them beautiful courses.

You are known for usually speaking your mind, why did you agree to an eight-month gagging order with the ECB?

Confidentially agreement. I didn't mind. No problem. It was actually good for me. It made me think, gather my thoughts, go through everything systematically. Not just go and say something right there and then. I've been calm, I've written a book. It's come out. I stand by everything in my book. Think it's been a brilliant process.

Since the ECB has not given you a satisfactory answer about why you were sacked, did you consider going down the path of suing for constructive dismissal?

They were clever in their reasons and clever in their reasoning. They just said it was cricketing reasons and there is nothing you can go on on cricketing reasons.

People say sue him, sue him, sue him, why don't you sue him? It's very easy to tweet, or to text or to say 'sue somebody'. Do you know how hard it is to sue somebody? Do you know how hard it is to get something across the line? Do you know how much money it costs? A court case like this could cost half a million, a million pounds in legal fees. You are not guaranteed to win anything.

But people do go down that road when they feel they have been wrongfully dismissed?

Of course they do. But I didn't go down that route because if you think this book week is pretty big, a court case would last a lot longer and it would be like this every single day. I would have definitely pursued something if I knew there was something going on for sure. I'm not frightened of it at all but I didn't pursue it.

With the benefit of hindsight, would you have done anything differently?

There are a load of things I would have done differently. Getting involved in the texting stuff (with opponents South Africa during the 2012 series), ruining Straussy's 100th test match (with the fallout from leaked texts between Pietersen and South African rival players about then England captain Andrew Strauss). But I'm me. I don't want to be somebody else. If you try and be somebody else, you are going to come short and you're not going to enjoy yourself and you're not going to be happy.

What do you feel are the dos and don'ts of being a successful coach?

Letting individuals be individuals. You can't try and clone everybody in the same way. Clearly it's a team sport but unfortunately team sports are made up of individuals.

It doesn't matter whether you play football, rugby or cricket, however you perform, it is monitored. You are an individual out there. You can't get away from the fact that whether you had a good game or whether you had a bad game. So you've got to try and get the best out of every individual. Not everybody is the same so you've got to treat people differently but lay boundaries. Then do the business.

What's the best shot you've ever played and the best knock you've ever had?

The best shot I played was the second reverse switch-hit I hit off Scott Styris in Durham (for a six in a one-dayer in 2008). The first one was just change your body around, change your hand around, hit and the timing was perfect. The second one few balls later, I changed my body around, I changed my hand around but he held the ball up in the air and it was a bit slower and I was like oh no, no, no. So I had wait a little bit and then hit the ball, which took a heck of an amount of discipline to wait for it and skill to execute it. That's the hardest shot I've played and very lucky to execute.

Innings, Sri Lanka, 2012, in Colombo, 45 degrees. I cannot handle the heat at all, I am horrendous in the heat, never thought I'd be able to do that (score 151 in the second test). Just from a mental perspective and fitness perspective.

How realistic are your hopes of playing for England again after a fallout like this?

I live in hope. I came to England 15 years ago as a little off-spinning kid who batted a little bit and I ended up achieving some pretty good stuff. So who knows what's possible, the world moves at an incredible paces these days, the world flies.

Ten years from now, what do you think your sporting legacy will be?

I know a lot of stuff have gone on this week but when you look on social media, people say they 'we miss you batting' and 'we want you back batting'. I don't think I will be remembered for this (the controversy caused by the allegations made against Flower and his team mates). I think I will be remembered for my cricket and that makes me happy.