Kevin Pietersen: The realistic blend of Yin and Yang

Kevin Pietersen

In an idealistic world, perfection would come with no strings attached. A perfectionist would be an individual who would be omnipotent with incomparably heroic qualities with none to question or undermine him. There wouldn’t be any twists to the tale of his excellence, but a rather predictable and straight-forward route to his predestined greatness.

The real world however doesn’t set store much by way of perfection. Like most other adjectives, perfection too is prone to circumstantial evidence and exaggeration. And Kevin Pietersen, more often than not, is the victim of this over-abused term.

In the years that he’s been playing international cricket, he’s embodied many versions of a perfectionist. He’s been the ‘perfect’ renegade – turncoat to his team and country; the ‘perfect’ maverick – who wastes no time with conventions and predictability and the so-called ‘perfect’ specimen of what cricketers shouldn’t be – showy and flashy.

Despite the immeasurable tangibles he brings in to the English cricketing table, it doesn’t take long for the respect and expectations to turn into sneers and contemptuous remarks questioning his worth to his table. Though the man himself has stayed unfazed, staring at these constant outpourings of hypocritical evaluations with a resigned amusement; this source of amusement comes after a long drawn battle of vulnerable justifications and explanations.

The Kevin Pietersen who became the butt of all jokes as his team management decided to do away with him on account of all his off-field diva-like antics more than a year ago, seems to have disappeared completely. The Kevin Pietersen who plays for England these days, after having been re-called is one who has become more circumspect in his off-field conduct and even more focused and lethal on the field.

These days, he’s become adept at shrugging off critiquing that comes his way and indifferent to what the world thinks about him. Kevin Pietersen doesn’t have the cocky and arrogant aura anymore, but has morphed into someone who understands his fallibility – his imperfection – and faults more than anyone else.

Ironically though, there isn’t anyone who is keen to talk about this imperfection of Kevin Pietersen that signifies his humanness. The hypocrisy that continues to make its rounds in the cricketing circuit hasn’t taken any stock value of the fact of how hard Pietersen’s been trying to rebuild his bridges as reparation for his past fallacies.

Before the start of England’s Ashes campaign Down Under, expectations were placed on Pietersen to defend the urn for the fourth time and bring it back home, to England. His 100th Test appearance for England at Gabba, in the first Test, was seen as a feat of epic proportions with endless discussions centering round him as the ‘perfect’ hero of English cricket.

In the span of a month, following England’s loss in the series, the conversation still centers around Kevin Pietersen. This time though, the discourses follow on statistical comparisons between his performances in the English leg of the series and his patchy run in Australia. Amidst the convenient overlooking that most of the English team have under-performed, it’s Pietersen who’s become the most preferred punching bag to be taken apart verbally.

His unconventionality has become a problem; his lack of aggressiveness has started to grate and his inability to stare back at the Australian bowling attack has become a source of humiliation. The very reasons that were seen as a source of embarrassment for England have now become reasons to pick Pietersen apart not just by past English players and experts, but also as allusions by his team-mates.

Though apologies to hinted alluding have been made, they don’t mean much especially as the barbs in the references have been pointed enough to remove any doubts about their obscurity. The irony in the situation couldn’t have been any more obvious. The repercussions for such a conduct had Kevin Pietersen been involved would have been far more serious with detailing of severe implications being laid down at his doorstep.

The Australians fans’ sledging of Pietersen with the caption that proclaimed his non-English roots too is a serious aspect that cannot be ignored. The spirit of cricket that sledging symbolises may condone the act, but that the remark came at about a time when Pietersen was on the verge of redefining the sport’s legacy is a manifestation of the perceiving of Pietersen around the cricketing world, that refuses to go away in spite of his contribution to the game.

Risk taking though, in spite of the way the world sees him, remains Pietersen’s forte as he himself declared before the start of the Boxing Day test at MCG. And at the end of it all, it’s this quality that makes him the ‘perfect’ anti-hero in a realistic, imperfect world separating him from the rest of his contemporaries.