http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevinpietersen/10884957/Kevin-Pietersen-The-England-dressing-room-during-the-Ashes-series-was-no-fun-Im-glad-to-be-out.htmlKevin Pietersen: The England dressing room during the Ashes series was no fun - I'm glad to be out
If the series in Australia last winter taught us anything, it was that they should never host back-to-back Ashes series again
I will have no anger, no negative thoughts whatsoever when England walk out without me at Lord’s on Thursday to play their first Test since the winter. I wish my friends in the England team well. I have moved on from the England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to end my international career and have put things in perspective.
Fourteen years ago, I was an off-spinner from Pietermaritzburg who did not know where his life was going. I had a notion that I wanted to make a life in England but had no idea if I would succeed.
Now I have played 104 Tests, batted at all the best grounds in the world and been lucky enough to score hundreds everywhere. Could I play more Test cricket? Yes of course, but should I sit here thinking I should be playing on Thursday? No, because that is when jealousy and negative thoughts come into your head.
I am grateful for what I have had and moved on with my life. I have scored 13,500 international runs for England and it would be greedy to want more, so I am at peace with everything.
It took only a couple of conversations with my family to start thinking this way because of how much I really did not enjoy the winter.
In fact, it has been a relief to be out of the dressing room because it was not a pleasant place in Australia. We were losing and in my opinion the environment was poor and I was not alone in thinking that. It is a view shared by a number of the players who have spoken their minds since coming back from the tour.
Now I have had time to reflect on the winter it is clear to me that back-to-back Ashes should never happen again. It was really hard for the England team to go to Australia and defend the Ashes just weeks after winning at home.
As soon as we arrived the Australian media turned the heat up on us. I have had that for years so it did not bother me. It was fun. But for other players you could sense it was a problem. The senior players were tired and it soon became a really long grind against an Australian side that had their backs up in their own country.
Australia knew they came close to winning here. The 3-0 defeat last summer was not a true reflection of that series in terms of the way they played their cricket and we played ours, so I knew it was going to be a tight return contest and we were not equipped to handle it.
Mitchell Johnson was sensational on those pitches and he was handled brilliantly by Michael Clarke. Even if he picked up a wicket in his third or fourth over of a spell, Clarke would take him off and save him for later in the day. It was brilliant captaincy. Johnson’s bowling was the best and most aggressive I have seen during my career, and I told him so at the end of the Test series when we shared a beer.
By then I thought that Andy Flower wanted me out. After the Sydney Test, a headline came out claiming Flower had said to the ECB it was either “him or me”. He denied saying that but the damage was done.
But my relationship with the other players was fine. We had an incredible tour on and off the field. I was helping all the bowlers out with their batting, and the night we lost 5-0 we were all having a drink in the bar together with our wives and girlfriends, which proves all was OK between us and still is.
I have no issue with the players, as many have said in interviews since the tour ended. I speak to Stuart Broad and I even organised for Graeme Swann to go on holiday to one of my friend’s hotels after he retired.
On a personal note, I did not score the runs I would have liked in Australia but I have played a certain way throughout my career and will continue to do so. There is method to my batting but I play on instinct as well and I would absolutely play that way again if we could go back in time.
In the first innings at Brisbane, I was caught at midwicket. As soon as the ball left Ryan Harris’s hand I thought ‘four’. I saw the angle and thought ‘bang it through midwicket’, but I got caught out. In the second innings, all I tried to do was help a short ball from Johnson to fine leg because it was too tight to pull, but I was caught again.
In Adelaide, I walked out to the crease and felt like I did not know which side of the bat I was holding. I felt that terrible and that is why I was walking at Peter Siddle and playing him on the full.
As soon as I was dismissed I walked out of the dressing room to the nets with Richard Halsall, the assistant coach, and spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to bat again. I felt that bad, the worst I have ever experienced in an Ashes series.
Why? I do not fully know. But my knee was hassling me a bit. I had an injection a few weeks before and during that innings it was hurting. In the dressing room everyone takes the mickey out of how I bend my knee during my stance because of how exaggerated the movement can be. But in Adelaide, because of the knee pain, I was standing a lot taller in the crease and that changed my game. I said to Halsall and spin coach Mushtaq Ahmed: “I can’t bat like that again.” I had to work hard to get myself back to playing normally again. In the second innings I made 53 and played very responsibly.
My dismissal in the second innings at Perth has received a lot of attention. I was caught at long on trying to hit Nathan Lyon for a second six. But if I see that ball again, I will still try to hit it for six. No problem. As he tossed it up I thought ‘six more there’. If you look at my career, that is how I play. People say it is irresponsible but it was not; it was successful.
Look at the innings that started it all off – the 158 against Australia in the 2005 Ashes at the Oval. I was hooking Brett Lee at 95mph into the stands. Any one of those shots could have gone straight up in the air and been caught. The 186 in Mumbai in 2012 is talked about as the best innings by a foreigner in India. I took risks during that hundred. I am England’s leading run scorer in all forms of cricket because of playing that way.
People say I should have ground it out. Should I? What would have been different?
What I have done during my career is ignore the ridiculous praise and the ridiculous criticism. I have stayed even and been mentally strong enough to keep believing in my methods and what I think is the best way for me to be successful.
It would have been easy for me to start defending a bit more. Would that have made me a better player? No. I am a risk-taker in cricket, in business and all parts of my life.
Coaching needs to focus more on natural talent
I have kept busy since my England career ended. I loved the Indian Premier League, even though results were disappointing for Delhi and now I am focused on Surrey and my business life.
I am extremely excited about establishing my cricket academy and foundation, which will launch in October in Dubai.
In total we have identified seven countries, including England, where we want to establish academies. The first is being built at the moment on a great plot in Dubai which will include a cricket field, pavilion and classrooms with the plan to coach kids between the ages of eight and 18.
My foundation will fund 13 disadvantaged kids and two chaperones from seven countries to come to my facility to be trained there for two weeks, guided by our coaching, taught the fitness and mental side of the game but to also have fun too. Then two years later I will pay for all the kids from the seven countries to come back and play a mini World Cup in Dubai against each other.
At the moment we are setting down how I want the kids to be coached and making sure we get that set up right.
My guiding principles are that I want to coach kids the way they play and not from a textbook. You want kids to grow up believing in their own natural talent and strengths.
I do not have a good technique at all. Sometimes I watch myself on television and I am embarrassed about my technique. I do not know how I score runs other than through self-confidence and belief in my ability.
Look at Lasith Malinga. How the hell does he get wickets bowling like that?
But his technique works for him. If he was a young England player he would probably have drifted out of the game. I have seen how coaching is now especially for kids. Ball on a cone, high elbow and hit through the ball.
In my opinion that is not the only way to coach and its holding back some natural talent. The game has changed and coaching has to change too.
Kevin Pietersen: Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes must be in the England Test side
I find it impossible to understand why England have not picked such exciting young talents - they need to be playing as much international cricket as possible
The first step to England putting the winter behind them is to identify the brand of cricket they want to play. I would like to see a positive, aggressive England. That is what entertains but I am not sure they have the personnel to play that way.
People talk about my runs winning Test matches and how England will miss that but the main reason this summer is going to be incredibly hard is because they have lost Graeme Swann. He used to control games in the first innings by keeping the runs down while also being capable of taking five-fors. In the second innings he would then destroy teams with his wickets and his retirement is the biggest problem for England this summer.
I have just spent six weeks in the Indian Premier League and know what those players think about Swann in Test cricket. They all say how Swann was huge for England and they will come here with more confidence because he has gone. I do not have England down as favourites to win the Test series this summer for this reason alone.
I would pick four seamers because there isn’t a spinner good enough to play Test cricket for England at the moment.
When England named the Test squad last week I was disappointed to see a few faces missing. I don’t understand why Ben Stokes is not playing at Lord’s this week. In Australia I saw a genuine star, somebody who walked into cricket’s toughest environment and who immediately did not feel intimidated by either the heat of an Ashes or the pace of Mitchell Johnson. He has a bright future for England and should be playing as much international cricket as possible.
England are worried about his lack of cricket but he has played two championship matches for Durham, and he strikes me as one of those players who rises to the occasion. Some players need lots of match practice, others can just switch it on because they have that confidence to help them perform. He is one of those and making him play more championship cricket rather than his first Lord’s Test is not going to help.
England picked Sam Robson, and good luck to him, but I feel Nick Compton should open with Alastair Cook. He did nothing wrong when he played for England. He is experienced and deserves another decent run in the side.
Ian Bell should bat at three. The time is right for him to take hold of that spot. He is a fantastic player, positive and great to watch. I would bat Joe Root at four. He has had an up and down time but you can tell if players have that certain something to succeed at Test level and I see Root as a player who has it mentally.
I would have chosen Eoin Morgan at five, Gary Ballance at six with Jos Buttler keeping wicket.
I find it unbelievable that we have started the summer with Buttler not an automatic choice for England’s Test side.
If he is not a good enough keeper for Test cricket then he should not be playing in the one-day internationals. Look at South Africa’s AB de Villiers: his keeping is not his strongest point but he does the job for the best team in the world.
Even when Adam Gilchrist retired he was still not the greatest keeper in the world but he was a game-changer with the bat. Buttler is a game-changer too and you want the opposition thinking when they get the team five down ‘oh no Buttler is coming out’.
He can get a hundred off 70-100 balls. The way the England team is set up with Cook and the defensive players at the top of the order, they should normally be able to counter the new ball so game-changers like Morgan, Stokes and Buttler can destroy teams later on.
I look at Buttler and it reminds me of when I started my Test career. The perceptions are the same. People said I was not the finished article and didn’t think I was ready for Test cricket. But when you find someone like Buttler with that X-factor then you must give them the chance. They will find a way to succeed.
He has a great attitude. I speak to him a lot. He rings me for advice about certain bits and pieces and he wants to learn. He phoned me recently to ask about how to play Lasith Malinga’s yorkers and it is a great sign he wants to take on board as much knowledge as possible.
The public want to see players like Stokes and Buttler who are young, vibrant and talented given a chance. A few senior players have finished so blood the youngsters by giving them a decent run in the side.
England have talked about a new era. Well, you need to pick a team the public believe in so they will buy into it. The chat leading into this series has been about a younger side and the public want to see that backed up in selection.
Giles paid for being too close to me
I felt really sorry for Ashley Giles when he missed out on the England head coach job. I spoke to him afterwards and told him I thought he had it nailed. But sadly I think he was just too close to me for the England and Wales Cricket Board’s liking. That is the problem. He had spoken too positively about me in Australia for the ECB to give him the job. It is a shame for both sides.
Instead, they turned to Peter Moores. First and foremost I believe England should not have appointed someone who has done the job before. It was time for fresh ideas.
But they have gone back to Peter and this time I think he will have a better chance of success.
I never had any issues with Peter as a person when he was coach and I was captain five years ago. In my opinion, at the time I did not feel Peter was the right man to take England forward. But the good thing about Peter is he is a nice man and he speaks very well. He never coached me but I saw him work well with others. His energy, enthusiasm and will to make people improve is outstanding.
This time there is not a crop of senior players to resist his methods or with the personality to challenge him. They might say things behind his back but they will not take him on in front of others and that will give Peter a better chance of success.
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