The ECB made a right old hash of the KP situation, caught out with confused messages and they were always going to lose the PR battle with someone so media savvy as KP.
He played some great innings for England but every player has their shelf life and just look at the one-day team and the young guys thru now, some of them will be in the test side i'm sure.
Strauss got pelted at the time he left KP out and his tory boy image is a fun for the tabloids to make fun of but however badly the situation was handled the right decision was made to leave him out and bring on younger players.
As a passionate England fan i'll remember a few breathtaking innings over the years but it's funny how on these boards people refer to him as 'a match winner' 'star player'
I'll argue Greame Swann did more for England to win matches in the period.
England's biggest achievements of the past 10 years: Ashes 2005, World T20, Ashes in Australia, India away test win. KP played outrageous and key innings in all of them. Particularly, Pietersen almost always turned up and produced his best in the big games/series - far more than any other England player of the era. Those runs in the big games, at speed, were why he was a matchwinner and star player. Not sure we'll see another English test batsman as enjoyable to watch for some time, sadly.
Hopefully this will be an end of it all and he can be remembered as a legendary batsman now!