England's new leader
Kevin Pietersen was unveiled as England's new captain on Monday, a decision which brought forth a lot of comment from the press
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
AFP
Kevin Pietersen was unveiled as England's new captain on Monday, a decision which brought forth a lot of comment from the press. To start off with, Lawrence Booth, in the Guardian, believes Pietersen has it in him to succeed.
Kevin Pietersen and moderation have never gone hand in hand. Just as the flamingo and the switch-hit are inherent with risk, so his appointment as England captain has the faintly unsettling feel of a stab in the dark. No doubt the usual nouns and adjectives will be thrown in his direction - a mercenary and an opportunist, brash and selfish - but for those concerned about England's closed-shop tendencies, Pietersen may actually stand for the best of both worlds: a player who already has the respect of the dressing-room and is sufficiently unEnglish to sweep it clean with a new broom.
But Mike Atherton, in the Times, labels the appointment a gamble and is worried that the demands of the England job could effect Pietersen's game.
Good luck, then, to him as he embarks on the next stage of his remarkable journey. It is an enormous undertaking and he will need all his inner toughness to succeed. Yesterday, he said that Vaughan's were big shoes to fill, but unlike Tiger Woods, who was told the same thing about Jack Nicklaus, Pietersen did not say that he had big feet. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a horrible feeling that this is going to end in tears. But, then again, as Vaughan showed on Sunday, it always ends in tears.
Shane Warne, Pietersen's former captain at Hampshire, writes about the challenges that he could face. Click here to read his column in the Times.
Mike Selvey picks two areas of Pietersen's captaincy to look out for: his ability to handle bowlers and how he relates to coach Peter Moores. Click here to read his article in the Guardian.
Stephen Brenkley, in the Independent, says Pietersen can be a change agent.
What sets Pietersen apart, why it just might work with him doing this most English of jobs, is that he is one of those people who makes things happen. It comes from talent, a sense of self-belief (a streak, dare one say to be found in many South Africans) and single-mindedness.
The Telegraph's Simon Briggs rewinds to Pietersen's captaincy debut in an ODI against New Zealand at Lord's. Scroll down the article to find Derek Pringle's list of five major tasks for Pietersen.
The Guardian's Richard Rae seeks out the opinions of a few cricketers to have played under Pietersen.
Richard Williams, in the Guardian, says something must be wrong with English cricket considering that the selectors were forced to look beyond native-born players to find the right candidate.
Ashok Ganguly is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo