| Kevin Pietersen’s Newsletter | Issue No. 48 |
Cricket, told the way I see it. Ten minutes inside the game, every other week.
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| 01 | The Big Read · It’s time to tell England fans the truth |
| 02 | The KP Verdict · On Brendon McCullum |
| 03 | The Rebuild · Five things I’d do tomorrow |
| 04 | What I’ve Seen This Week |
| 05 | A Closing Note & more |
It’s Time to Tell England Fans the Truth
The Bazball experiment was worth trying. It’s over now, and the rebuild has to start with honesty.
English cricket does not need another slogan. It needs honesty. For the last few years, supporters have been sold a story. That this team was changing Test cricket, that results were almost secondary, that entertainment was the point. At the start, I understood it. Test cricket needed energy. The dressing room needed to feel lighter. And for a while, it was genuinely exciting.
But international sport does not reward intentions. It rewards winning. And England have not won enough. That is the truth, and the public are not stupid. They pay a lot of money to watch this team, they fill grounds like no other country does for Test cricket, and they see straight through being told that everything is fine when it plainly isn’t.
Test cricket is not T20 cricket played in whites.
The experiment was worth trying. I’ll never criticise a team for wanting to play with courage. But courage without judgement becomes recklessness. Positivity without adaptability becomes arrogance. And a philosophy that cannot change when conditions change is not a philosophy anymore. It is stubbornness.
Test cricket is a game of patience, attrition and adaptation. Knowing when to attack and when to absorb, wearing down bowlers, earning the right to dominate. England have too often tried to skip the hard parts. And the uncomfortable truth is that they are not as good as they think they are. Joe Root is world-class. Jofra Archer, fit and available, is world-class. After that there is talent, but talent is not the same as excellence, and potential is not the same as performance.
Fans will accept a hard road if they believe the destination is real. What they will not accept is nonsense: being told collapses are part of the entertainment, or that losing doesn’t matter. English cricket has to stop selling the idea that everything is fine. It is not fine. But it can be fixed.
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On Brendon McCullum
| Verdict · Time to go |
This is not personal. Brendon is a good guy with great energy. He can lift a room and make players feel ten feet tall, and there is real value in that. But there is a difference between being a mentor and being a head coach.
A Test head coach is a tactician. England have looked like a team with one answer to every question.
Hit harder. Go again. Be positive. That works for some players; it does not work for all. Zak Crawley should not have to bat like Ben Duckett. Harry Brook should not have to bat like Ben Stokes. A proper coaching structure works that out. It doesn’t force everyone into the same costume and then blame them when it doesn’t fit. England need a coach who lives and breathes the five-day game. Not a slogan. A method.
Five Things I’d Do Tomorrow
Not a slogan. A plan.
| 01 | Appoint a proper Test coach Not just a motivator. Someone who can plan a series, understand technique, manage workloads and make tactical calls under pressure. |
| 02 | Reconnect with county cricket The Championship is where Test cricketers are made. Value county runs and wickets properly. Real red-ball substance, not white-ball reputation. |
| 03 | Let players play their own way Positive cricket doesn’t mean everyone plays the same. The art is knowing which player needs freedom, which needs structure, which needs an arm around the shoulder. |
| 04 | Restore standards and accountability Beer, golf, good vibes, no consequences. Fair or not, perception matters. Train properly, prepare properly, stop dressing up poor performances as entertainment. |
| 05 | Tell the fans the truth The next coach’s first press conference should be a reset. No spin, no buzzwords. Tell the public it’s a rebuild and it’ll take time. They’ll back that. They will not be treated like fools. |
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Why I Still Spend My Mornings Counting Rhino
Cricket gave me a platform. What I choose to point it at matters more to me now than any innings I ever played. This month the count came back with numbers that, for the first time in years, are moving in the right direction, and you have no idea what that does to a person who has stood and watched the alternative.
I’ll keep using this space, every few weeks, to tell you what’s actually happening on the ground. Not the doom. The work.
The count only moves the right way because people fund the work behind it. A SORAI membership puts you directly into that effort: the rangers, the monitoring, the next generation of calves.
| Become a SORAI Member |
I founded SORAI, Save Our Rhinos Africa & India.
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| 01 | Jacob Bethell looks increasingly like England’s long-term white-ball superstar. |
| 02 | India are balancing winning now with giving opportunities to an exciting new generation, led by Sooryavanshi. |
| 03 | With the T20 World Cup only months away, squad depth and finishing combinations are becoming increasingly important. |
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There is still no better place in the world to play Test cricket than England in the summer. The grounds are full, the supporters care, the history matters. That is exactly why this hurts people. Because they care. They want to see England compete. They want to see England win. And before any of that can happen, English cricket has to be brave enough to tell the truth. The experiment is over. Now the rebuild has to begin.
Look after yourselves.
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