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Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who formerly played for England and currently plays for Surrey.
Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa. He made his first-class debut for Natal in 1997 before moving to England, after voicing his displeasure at the racial quota system in place in South Africa. His English mother made him eligible to play for England and after serving a qualifying period of four years playing at county level, he was called up almost immediately into the national side. He made his international debut in the One Day International match against Zimbabwe in 2004 and his Test match debut in the 2005 Ashes series against Australia the following year.
The England team's subsequent reliance on Pietersen resulted in only a single first-class appearance for Hampshire between 2005 and 2010. On 17 June 2010, Pietersen announced his wish to leave Hampshire and he subsequently joined Surrey on loan for the remainder of the season before joining the club permanently from the 2011 season onwards.
He was captain of the England Test and ODI teams from 4 August 2008 to 7 January 2009 but resigned after just three Tests and nine ODIs, following a dispute with England coach Peter Moores, who was sacked the same day. His relationship with the ECB never fully recovered. This came to a head in 2012 when, after a disagreement over his schedule, Pietersen announced his retirement from all forms of international limited-overs cricket on 31 May. Although he later retracted his retirement, his relationship with both the ECB and his team-mates soured during the series against South Africa and he was dropped for the final Test of that series.
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