The England squad for the World T20 in March was announced on Wednesday, and Kevin Pietersen reacted to the announcement by going on a rant on Twitter. The 35-year-old remains an outcast from the England national squad set-up, despite his heroics with the bat. His name was not even mentioned in the selection meeting.
Within an hour of the announcement, Pietersen had launched into a tirade, which was emotional as well as acidic. There were a lot of undertones in the things he said, and despite the immediate impression from the rant being that it was coming from a carefree rebel, a sense of intense disappointment can be gleaned as well.
In the first tweet, the immediate reaction, he lambasted the selection decisions – without mentioning anything about his own non-inclusion. The exclusion of Luke Wright and the inclusion of James Vince in his stead was what bothered him, but the gamut of emoticons which he put in the tweet suggest his sorrow was even more personal.
South African domestic cricketer Cameron Delport was one of the first people to react to the legend’s non-exclusion, reacting with dismay. KP replied to him, joking that he had informed the ECB that he had asked for some rest from cricket.
Between his heroics in the various T20 leagues around the world, he had no time for an event such as the World Cup.
He also replied to a fan, who asked him if he was ranting on Twitter out of jealousy – making yet another joke.
The series of tweets ended with a picture of him having breakfast with his feet up, with a television in front of him – on which he shall enjoy watching the tournament. What is clear from the emotions showed by him on his non-inclusion is that his enjoyment of watching the World Cup will not be entirely free of pangs of pain.
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