{"id":883938,"date":"2026-09-08T02:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883938\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T02:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T02:30:16","slug":"profound-honour-legends-bitter-exile-finally-ends-in-surprise-england-coaching-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883938\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Profound honour\u2019: Legend\u2019s bitter exile finally ends in surprise England coaching call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Pietersen has joined England\u2019s white-ball coaching team as a \u201cspecialist mentor\u201d in the build-up to next year\u2019s World Cup, 12 years on from the controversial end to his international career.<\/p>\n

The former England captain will be part of Brendon McCullum\u2019s coaching group for the upcoming T20 and one-day international series at home to Sri Lanka later this month, as well as subsequent series.<\/p>\n

Among his assignments will include a white-ball tour of Australia later this year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Watch every ball of the England vs Pakistan Test Series live & exclusive on FOX SPORTS, available on Kayo | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 50-over World Cup is being held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia from October 2027.<\/p>\n

Pietersen, 46, played 136 ODIs and 37 T20 matches for England, scoring more than 5,500 runs. He also scored 8,181 runs in his 104 Test matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am immensely proud to have been asked to help this team on their journey to win a World Cup in South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kevin Pietersen will return to the English fold as a white-ball consultant. (AP Photo\/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)Source: AP<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting on the England uniform again for the first time since 2014 is a profound honour and a deeply special moment. We 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pietersen has worked as a mentor for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got immense respect for KP and what he\u2019s achieved in the game,\u201d England white-ball head coach McCullum said.<\/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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Pietersen shares a laugh with England white-ball coach Brendon McCullum. (Photo by Gareth Copley \u2013 ECB\/ECB via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pietersen\u2019s coaching nod ends a 12-year exile from England\u2019s cricket set-up, after his international career ended in tumultuous circumstances after the disastrous 2013\/14 tour of Australia.<\/p>\n

Following the 5-0 defeat, the veteran, despite being one of the team\u2019s top performers, was sacked.<\/p>\n

He went on to dominate at county and T20 franchise level over the next 18 months to emerge as a candidate for a recall during the 2015 Ashes.<\/p>\n

However, then-director of cricket and former teammate Andrew Strauss emphatically closed the door on a return, saying a \u201cmassive trust issue\u201d remained.<\/p>\n

Strauss also revealed that Pietersen had rejected an offered advisory role to the white-ball team similar to his new position.<\/p>\n

Regarded as one of the most destructive batters of his era, Pietersen hit 4422 runs at over 41 during a nine-year ODI career, while he made 5695 T20 runs at 33.89, including three centuries.<\/p>\n

His T20 career included a lengthy stint in the Big Bash League with the Melbourne Stars from 2014 to 2018, where he scored ten 50s in 33 innings.<\/p>\n

Following retirement, Pietersen has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports\u2019 cricket coverage in England, as well as at major tournaments and for T20 leagues around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Pietersen has joined England\u2019s white-ball coaching team as a \u201cspecialist mentor\u201d in the build-up to next year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-883938","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\/883938","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=883938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}