Pietersen 'better than everyone else'

Kevin Pietersen's obscene form this summer has forced Peter Lalor to devote an entire, fascinating article on him in Saturday's The Australian, which includes a number of quotations from Pietersen's former coach Rod Marsh:

Suggestions that Pietersen is a slogger without technique are greeted with scorn by Marsh.

"Not at all, there's nothing unusual about him," he said. "He's not like anyone else - he's better than everyone else. That's the thing that people don't understand.

"They say he hasn't got a very good technique - that's bullshit he has got a good technique and just because it's different doesn't mean it's not good.

"Ricky Ponting is exactly the same. Ponting's technique is different to Sachin Tendulkar, but that doesn't mean to say it's not good. People just don't understand that, people don't understand and didn't want to understand Pietersen until he started making runs."

[...]

"He's a very big bloke, he's a very strong bloke, he's a very fit bloke and grounds are smaller, bats are a bit better and he takes them on and hits them over the top if need be," Marsh said. "He's dangerous. He's very dangerous."

Marsh isn't sure about the Gilchrist comparison.

'History will prove that he's going to be very, very good and whether or not his numbers are as good as Gilly's we'll wait and see," he said.

"He's an outstanding, outstanding talent."

Lalor also gains the opinion of Tony Greig - like Pietersen, a South African who came over to England - who, like Marsh, is excited by the potential Pietersen has. Have a read.