Bullish Kevin Pietersen still wants to play for the Proteas
It's an ironic dream for the controversial 37-year-old who left South Africa exactly because of transformation.
Kevin Pietersen harbours a Proteas dream. Photo: Paul Kane/Getty Images.
Kevin Pietersen is still dreaming of making one of the most dramatic and ironic turnarounds in cricket history.
The controversial 37-year-old England batsman wants to play for the Proteas at the 2019 World Cup.
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Ever since he was placed in international exile in 2014 and started playing for the Dolphins in the domestic T20 competition in 2015, the possibility has been mooted.
Pietersen is eligible to represent South Africa again from next year.
“I’ll play T20s in South Africa for the next two years, I’ll play in Australia for the next two years, I’ll play in Pakistan for the next two years,” he told TalkSport.
“I’m building a lodge in Africa and I’ll be with my family and doing stuff in Africa.”
Pietersen infamously turned his back on South African cricket in 2000 because he felt quotas were keeping him out of the KwaZulu-Natal side.
He then went on to have a very successful but colourful international career with England, where he scored more than 13 000 international runs.
But Pietersen eventually bumped heads with administrators too many times.
Now, it seems, he’s suddenly quite keen to bow out with his country of birth.
“I’ll play for South Africa,” Pietersen said after he was pushed for an answer.
“It’s a possibility, wherever it happens we’ll wait until 2019. All I’m doing now is committing to the franchises. I don’t know, we’ll see.”
That would be hugely ironic, given that South African cricket is now arguably more transformation-inclined than ever before.
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