• Kevin Pietersen saga

Let's have Pietersen playing for Australia in the Ashes

Kevin Pietersen has made the most of the spotlight on him as a Melbourne Stars player in the Big Bash © Getty Images

Enlarge

Kevin Pietersen will have one more person on his hit-list when he comes to write his next autobiography: Aussie politician Tony Abbott. Kevin had expressed a desire to lead the Australian Prime Minister's XI against England on Wednesday in one of cricket's more storied warm-up fixtures.

But Abbott, who is surely now in for one of KP's trademark kickings when KP: More Of My Story Than Even Piers Morgan Could Want To Read (published by Score Settling Press, RRP £144.99) hits the shelves, has declared "not in my name". Or, rather, the selectors have, but few have been spared the wrath of Kevin in the past so Tony shouldn't take too much comfort that the facts will exonerate him.

KP will not get to face down his former England team-mates over 22 yards and will have to continue doing so via the Twitter trenches. Who knows what collateral damage will be caused in that on-going struggle.

Pietersen has been playing for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash and, miked-up while batting, had joshed with commentator Adam Gilchrist that he would be keen to lead the Aussie PM XI against England in the absence of the injured Michael Hussey. Alas no. Instead, the Aussie PM's side will be led by the considerably less divisive figure of Chris Rogers, who has not even written a tell-all book. The loser.

It feels like an opportunity missed. The Pietersen-England saga seems set to run and run. As long as he is playing cricket, and playing it well, England fans are going to be asking "shouldn't we be having some of that?" Promisingly though the likes of Gary Ballance and Moeen Ali have done, the England team has not been nearly so exciting without Pietersen, and it's only natural that fans and commentators speculate as to whether he would be doing better than the current mob.

Freddie Flintoff has waded into the KP debate © Getty Images

Enlarge

Stuart Broad was quite right this weekend when he told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I just think the [KP] sacking became a media uproar. It just seemed a bit unnecessary when every other player gets dropped for poor form, don't they?"

England created a monster with their handling of the KP affair last year. It caused a tension that lasted all of 2014, and contributed to the collapse of Alastair Cook's form and standing. They could have eased Pietersen out quietly on grounds of his form, which had hardly been making an unanswerable case. Instead, they chose melodrama, and skulduggery, and the result is that while Kevin can still hold a cricket bat, people will speculate as to whether he should be in the England side or not.

Many a sportsman's stature grows when he is out of a team and it is, let's face it, unlikely that England's limited overs cricketers will ever play well enough to shut the debate down.

There's only one way to settle this. A fight! No, not a fight. Cricket. Andrew Flintoff, the other former player who looms large over the current anaemic England team, suggested that England's bowlers would love a chance to bowl at Pietersen.

If @KP24 plays for the primeministers XI they'll need a turnstile at the bowlers end they'll be queuing up @tensporttv #lethimplayabbot— andrew flintoff (@flintoff11) January 10, 2015

Pietersen responded: "I wouldn't mind facing Freddie at the moment. He is bowling backwards! I'd bat with a toothpick."

As far as I can see, the best way to take this debate forward is for Kevin to qualify for another international side and then play against England. South Africa probably won't have him, but given Michael Clarke's back, there's a vacancy in the Australian middle order for a player of Kevin's pedigree. In exchange for going easy on him in the next tell-all book, Tony Abbott should rush the paperwork through right away.

Let's have Kevin Pietersen playing for Australia in the next Ashes and see how he gets on. Depending on the results, either Kevin, or his former team-mates, will have to shut up for good, and that can only be a positive for all concerned.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd