Pietersen set to dominate once again

Kevin Pietersen is set to dominate the cricket agenda this week, at least in the UK, with the release of his much-hyped autobiography. The book is expected to detail his version of his sacking by England earlier this year along with various other incidents from his life and career which has never failed to provide thrills, intrigue, drama and controversy.

Material from the book, which has been ghosted by acclaimed journalist David Walsh, will start to become public on Monday. Pietersen is set to hold a ticket-only event in Manchester on Tuesday along with various media commitments before the book is fully available in the shops on Thursday.

Most will first turn to find out Pietersen's version of what happened as the Ashes tour unravelled last year and into January, leading up to his central contract being cancelled in February. What was said in that meeting organised by the players before the Melbourne Test to speak openly and honestly about what had gone wrong? Was there too much honesty for some players to take? Did it turn into disrespect? Or was this just the final straw in a situation that had become irreparable?

Then onto Sydney and the judgement by Paul Downton, the new managing director of England cricket, after a two-and-a-half day Test that he had never seen anyone so "disengaged" from a team. And, of course, was there whistling?

Through everything that is read, re-hashed and spoken about in the coming days it is worth remembering the book is just another side to a story that has the increasing feel of never coming to a satisfactory conclusion.

The way his England career ended is only one area that Pietersen has the chance to fill in some blanks. Will he finally reveal the exact content of the text messages he sent to some of the South Africans in 2012 about Andrew Strauss and the motivation behind sending them? And what really went on to get him back in the team?

Going further back, to 2008 and early 2009, there was his first sacking by England - from the captaincy. What was he trying to achieve in those days? Was it all an effort to get Graham Ford installed as England coach? Pietersen could well have had valid concerns to raise about how the team was developing under Peter Moores, but does he regret how he went about trying to make them? It will be fascinating to see how often regret, or even remorse, from Pietersen's side emerges.

If this is to be the definitive account of Pietersen's England career it would be nice to think there will be ample words given to the the good times - there were plenty in an era where the team enjoyed considerable success.

These tales will clearly not be the ones to grab the headlines this week, but the recollections of The Oval, Adelaide, Barbados, Colombo and Mumbai will be intriguing, and how much Pietersen talks about them in the context of the team as well as his individual brilliance. To play those stunning innings he needed players at the other end, even if just to block.

As much as there appears to be a thirst to find out which players take the full force of Pietersen's anger, it will also be interesting to see which ones emerge on his good side.

And will those scorned feel the need to respond, or will they take a deep breath and allow the natural cycle to die down of its own accord? Will the ECB want to counter or bite their lip? There will be further demands that the board make public their full reasons for his sacking. In April, Alastair Cook promised to give his side of the story although it would seem unlikely that he will emerge from his pre-Sri Lanka break to comment any time soon.

"There will be a time in the not too distant future," Cook said, "when I can give you the whole side of my story but I hope you can bear with that a little longer."

Few other sports books in recent times have come with this amount of pre-publication hype. Last year Alex Ferguson's autobiography, released in a similar way without serialisation to build up the anticipation and ensuing coverage, was met with a somewhat lukewarm response when it did not quite provide what had been expected - or hoped. Over the next few days we will see whether Pietersen has said enough to appease the demand.