Michael Clarke surprised by Kevin Pietersen’s one-day retirement – Cricket News Update
Australian skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978, on Thursday revealed that he was also surprised by hard-hitting England batsman, Kevin Pietersen’s decision to quit international limited-overs cricket quite early.
"I'm surprised that he retired from the shorter form of the game, because of how good he is," said Clarke speaking to media reporters before Australia’s ODI squad left for England, for a five-match ODI series against the Ashes rivals.
"And he's only 31 years of age. Obviously the ECB has different rules to Australian players in regards to our contracts - I'm not part of the T20 team but I'm still eligible to play one-day cricket and vice-versa,” he added further.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806, the 31-year-old Natal-born English cricketer bid farewell to the limited over formats of international cricket (ODIs and T20s) last month, blaming England’s hectic schedule for his premature call. The hard-hitting
middle-order batsman later revealed that he wanted to quit only the fifty-overs format of the game, but was forced to quit T20s as well as a clause in the ECB contract binds the contracted players to make themselves available either for both the formats, or
for none.
Clarke, though shocked by Pietersen’s early retirement, said he was relieved as an opposition player as they won’t have to counter the KP threat in the upcoming five-match series against England.
The ODI series between the Ashes rivals kicks off at Lord’s on June 29. Before the ODI series against England, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 on June 23, and two practice matches against English
counties http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 (June 26).
Clarke also believes the ODI series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 will provide his young bowlers an opportunity to acquaint - or reacquaint - themselves with English conditions ahead of next year’s Ashes series, to be held in England between June
and August 2013.
"The Ashes is a long way from my mind right now. But any opportunity you get to play in the same conditions as you're going to play in 12 or 15 months' time can only be good for a team," said the Aussie skipper.
Tags: