KP: England's last big star of a bygone era
Barney Ronay examines what the reaction to Kevin Pietersen's autobiography means for the game in England as a whole
ESPNcricinfo staff
10-Oct-2014
Writing in the Guardian, Barney Ronay examines what Kevin Pietersen "striding about in his silk dressing gown, lipstick smudged, railing grandly against the world from his Sunset terrace and generally dominating the conversation with that 300-page monologue of rage and claustrophobia masquerading as an autobiography" means for the game in England as a whole. It's not pretty:
Elsewhere, cricket is slipping out of sight. It has become more than ever a sport for the wealthy and the pre-converted, an invisible noise through the wall for the majority of people, whose summer now belongs to the Premier League transfer window and the fall-out from Manchester United's sensational tour of Madagascar. Sealed within its bubble of connected interests, English cricket has stewed and bloomed through a decade of profitable isolation, sweating its pre-existing stars, monetising its goodwill, contracting lucratively. How can this end well?