Warne hits out at ECB stance on Pietersen retirement – Cricket News Update
Former Australian spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shane-Keith-Warne-c89672 has slammed the England and Wales Cricket Board for their handling of Kevin Pietersen’s retirement, saying the board should have accommodated the batsman’s desire to continue playing T20s, instead of letting their egos get in the way.
Pietersen shocked the cricketing community in May when he announced his retirement from international limited-overs cricket, a decision which he claimed was motivated by the team's busy schedule in the coming months.
His initial plan was to retire from ODIs, and continue playing Tests and T20s for England. However, ECB contracts state that any player who retires from one form of limited-overs cricket, will automatically be ruled out of selection in the other, owing to which Pietersen’s request was not entertained.
“... I'm very surprised that the ECB didn't try and negotiate that better, drop their egos and say, okay we understand this, we want to keep our best players playing all the time,” Warne said. “... it's just a bit too much ego for my liking from the ECB.”
Criticising the ECB for their excessively rigid approach, Warne offered up current Aussie skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978’s case as an example.
“Michael Clarke's given up Twenty20 in Australia because he can't play all three forms at that level, but you can't imagine Australia dropping him and saying don't worry about one-day cricket, just http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adrian-Roger-Kirshaw-Pierson-c42135 to Tests,” Warne pointed out.
Pietersen, whose career spans 127 ODIs (with 4184 runs and 9 centuries at 41.84 to his credit) and 111 T20 games (3412 runs), has been counted among England’s most skilled batsmen, and his retirement, four months before the Poms prepare to defend their http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20 title, has come as a huge blow.
“Any team that hasn't got http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806 is significantly weaker,” Warne emphasised. “He's a match-winner so that's a big loss.”
In addition to losing his services for the World T20, the Poms will also be without the right-hander in their upcoming 5-match ODI series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, due to kick off on June 29.
However, the team appears to have moved on, and new contenders for filling the sizeable void left by Pietersen in the line-up include http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in the only T20 on June 24).
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