Kevin Pietersen has been appointed as a \u201cspecialist mentor\u201d to England\u2019s white-ball teams during the run-up to the ICC Men\u2019s Cricket World Cup in late 2027.<\/p>\n
Announced on Monday morning, the move marks the first time Pietersen will have worked with the senior England side since he was controversially sacked as a player in the wake of the 2013\/14 Ashes whitewash in Australia.<\/p>\n
Pietersen, 46, will be part of Brendon McCullum\u2019s backroom staff for the next year, starting with the white-ball fixtures against Sri Lanka in September, and will continue through to the 50-over World Cup in Southern Africa.<\/p>\n
McCullum, still in charge of the white-ball set-up despite losing his Test role this summer, said: \u201cI\u2019ve got immense respect for KP and what he\u2019s achieved in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had an amazing impact on English cricket, so for someone with his experience, knowledge and stature to want to play a role with this team is a fantastic result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m particularly excited for our batters to get the opportunity to work with him. KP has a unique understanding of what it takes to perform at the highest level, which will be hugely valuable to our players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always respected each other and had a strong appreciation for what the other brings to the game, so I\u2019m really looking forward to working together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pietersen said: \u201cI am immensely proud to have been asked to help this team on their journey to win a World Cup in South Africa. Putting on the England uniform again for the first time since 2014 is a profound honour and a deeply special moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an incredibly talented white-ball squad, and I am excited to get in the trenches and work relentlessly hard with these players to maximise their potential. To be a part of Brendon\u2019s think tank over the next 12 months is a fantastic opportunity, and I cannot wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pietersen will join assistant coaches Marcus Trescothick and Jeetan Patel, with Sarah Taylor also part of the set-up as a fielding\/wicketkeeping specialist and Tim Southee overseeing the fast bowlers.<\/p>\n
The ECB statement added: \u201cHaving grown up in South Africa, Pietersen\u2019s knowledge and understanding will particularly help the One Day International team as it prepares for next year\u2019s World Cup which is being played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Pietersen has been appointed as a \u201cspecialist mentor\u201d to England\u2019s white-ball teams during the run-up to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-883146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}