KP Mantle?

More on KP's switch-hitting. In the Times Mike Atherton wonders if Pietersen could transfer his talents to baseball if he ever got tired of cricket in England.

Switch-hitting is not unusual in baseball. It is a commonly held belief that right-handed hitters do better against left-handed pitchers and vice versa. The ambidextrous hitter, therefore, becomes a gem of a player and can take advantage of any idiosyncrasies in the size of the boundaries, while giving flexibility to the coach. All a switch-hitter has to do is take his place on one side of the plate or the other before the pitcher has stepped on to his mark. Once the pitcher has wound up, however, the hitter cannot switch.

John Buchanan, the former Australia coach, predicted some years ago (was this partly down to Young's influence?) that ambidextrous batting, baseball-style, would be the skill of the future ... Buchanan well knows, cricket will continue to evolve. During the 1985 Texaco Trophy series, after poorly executed reverse sweeps by Ian Botham and Mike Gatting, Peter May, the chairman of selectors at the time, was forced to issue an edict that England batsmen should not reverse sweep. Such puritanism seems fanciful now.

In the New Zealand Herald David Leggat adds that the switch-hit is a natural extension of a batsman making use of his footwork, terrific hand-eye co-ordination and being quick enough to recognise when pies are being delivered to take his chances.