KP retires from limited overs cricket

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport
England batsman Kevin Pietersen retires from international limited-overs cricket with immediate effect. More details soon...

Just read it

Brave decision. Maybe has one eye on IPL deals to give him a comfortable retirement. Either way I respect his decision.

An odd decision, as I still feel he has plenty to offer in those formats... Presumably he will play for Surrey in the T20 now

I'm shocked!

KP you're only 31!

I wonder if somebody upset him in someway?? Ortherwise I don't really understand this decision at all... particularly as I am sure he will want to keep playing IPL etc.

He had to retire as he wanted to give up one format but the ECB do not allow it.
If you want to give up either 50 overs or 20/20 then you have to give up the other.

Quite surprised by the timing.
Surely it would have been better to announce he was retiring at the end of this summer?
What difference is retiring now, rather than then, going to make?

Shelsey93 wrote:I wonder if somebody upset him in someway?? Ortherwise I don't really understand this decision at all... particularly as I am sure he will want to keep playing IPL etc.

He mentioned 'young guns' I am assuming maybe walking before being pushed? Buttler, Taylor, Bairstow are all pushing to feature. Maybe ECB has a plan to go with more youth in the ODI's?

The timing is strange I will say that.

wtf?
50 overs i could understand just to get more time off but hes one of the worlds greatest T20 batsmen. Huge loss if this isnt just Nick Knight on the wind up.

Maybe he was given an ultimatum regarding next years IPL as has been suggested.

Hoggy_Bear wrote:Quite surprised by the timing.
Surely it would have been better to announce he was retiring at the end of this summer?
What difference is retiring now, rather than then, going to make?

The timing suggests hes had some kind of falling out regarding the future tours and demands on his time, or possibly even theyve suggested resting him for upcoming games and hes flipped out again.

Who knows, but I cant beleive this is a decision made without drama.

AN ECB rule states that you cannot retire from ODI format one without retiring from the other.

STUPID RULE

Sounds like some sort of bust up.

As I understand it players cannot opt out of ODIs but still play T20s by choice or vice versa - i.e. they must make themselves available for both formats, even if the selectors choose not to use you in one of them (ie. Strauss not playing in T20 World Cup and Cook not currently in T20s).

KP clearly has the idea that he wants to pick-and-choose his cricket - Tests, IPL, T20 Internationals, perhaps other T20 opportunities. And that doesn't include ODIs. England won't allow that to happen, and so will omit him from T20.

Very interesting developments all round, and a real shock.

A decision that has left me shocked and a bit confused. He's the best T20 Batsman in the World and the T20 World Cup is just around the corner - a perfect place for an egomaniac like KP to display his talent to the World. The next ODI World Cup is just 3 years away and he'll only be 34 yet he's walking away. I respect his decision but it is a great shame and a great loss to England in the limited overs form.

It's especially odd considering that we'd finally got a successful opening partnership in ODIs and now we have to start looking again - Davies for me.

Very shocked but looking at it another way:

T20 - he was part of the winning world T20 team last time - is there anything left to achieve there?

ODIs - next World Cup a long way off, there's probably at least 50 ODI games before then, including some fairly lengthy overseas stints. Maybe he doesn't want to commit to the extra time away on top of the IPL and Test tours

With the retirement rule I guess its because England trat it as a single squad, and dont want to ship a player round the world to play the token 2 T20's

Even so this does seem to have been a massive bollock drop by the ECB, and as much as KP is a drama queen and selfish at times i do hope they find a way of doing a deal to retain him for the T20 world cup. Sure they have a bunch of kids but those kids have yet to prove anything, and its unrealistic to expect even the brightest talents to emulate KP in that format.

Just to clarify:

- He wanted to play both T20s and Tests, but drop out of ODIs
- The ECB rejected this request, and so he won't be selected for either T20s or ODIs. Because they don't want to let him 'pick and choose' his cricket. If he can play Tests and T20s he can play the format in the middle. Particularly if he is still going to make himself available for IPL etc.

Shelsey93 wrote:Just to clarify:

- He wanted to play both T20s and Tests, but drop out of ODIs
- The ECB rejected this request, and so he won't be selected for either T20s or ODIs. Because they don't want to let him 'pick and choose' his cricket. If he can play Tests and T20s he can play the format in the middle. Particularly if he is still going to make himself available for IPL etc.

So the ECB have cut off their nose to spite their face then?

WTF!

Totally called this a few months back. Can't believe I'm saying this but I'll miss him!

a big Middle finger to the ECB and too right! Those idiots fined a player despite freedom of speech for a statement that was neither offensive or rude!

Shelsey93 wrote:Just to clarify:

- He wanted to play both T20s and Tests, but drop out of ODIs
- The ECB rejected this request, and so he won't be selected for either T20s or ODIs. Because they don't want to let him 'pick and choose' his cricket. If he can play Tests and T20s he can play the format in the middle. Particularly if he is still going to make himself available for IPL etc.

Right that makes sense. Tough situation, they have a rule then have a player who asks to be exempted from it.
Brave from the ECB to look at the bigger picture and make a firm stand against IPLites. I guess this goes back to KPs comments a few months ago, the issues obviously been rumbling a while now. I do feel its a massive loss for England tough, such a pity he isnt willing to tow the line and make everyones lives more easy. he cant use the Chris Gayle excuses, this comes down purely to KP does want KP wants to do.
Sad for everyone.

Shelsey93 wrote:... Presumably he will play for Surrey in the T20 now

I doubt that was Pietersen's motivating factor.

It'll be interesting to see what happens on the Surrey front. I don't claim to know all the details but his contract with Surrey is heavily dependent upon his contract with the EWCB. As he is no longer contracted with England for one dayers, his Surrey contract might be similarly affected.

Bit of a shock - so far as anything KP does is a total shock. Wouldn't have surprised me a year ago but I had thought he had got his limited overs game back on track and was actually enjoying it...

A pity , especially as it seems a rather inflexible attitude by the management means he can't be selected now for the T20 , even though he was apparently willing to play.
However , if it means he concentrates more on the five day game England will not lose too much by it - as he says himself there are plenty of young guns ready to push him out , and if his absence causes some of them to develop quicker , no harm is done in the short game either.

Certainly opens up a spot at the top of the order for someone.

Davies? Hales?

Especially after his awesome ODI form in the UAE this is an odd decision. Huge loss in the T20 format as well.