Top 5 England cricketers who were born in South Africa

#2 Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen is the most famous South African to turn up for the English team

Kevin Pietersen was born in 1980 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa where he played three years of domestic cricket from the year 1997 to 2000. However, as the cricketer did not get his opportunities at the highest level, Kevin decided to shift to England to pursue a career in the game. Pietersen has an English mother, therefore it was easy for him to get a place in the English domestic cricket but had to serve a period of four years in the domestic league before he could represent the national team.

As soon as the 36-year old completed the four-year period, he was drafted into the English national team at the age of 24. Pietersen went on to become the most exciting English batsman in a couple of years and did not disappoint his adopted nation as he scored a total of more than 12,500 runs in international cricket for England.

However, controversies always surrounded the South African-born cricketer as he was dropped from the national side for an indefinite period after he was found guilty of sending derogatory messages about his captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower to some of the South African cricketers.

Even with 23 Test centuries to his name, Pietersen is still not considered as an English great because of the controversies that have surrounded his career since the start. The star batsman continues to play for different domestic T-20 sides in Australia, South Africa, England, India, West Indies, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.