Australia got an early taste of Kevin Pietersen’s world-class talent – to wind people up and make instant enemies – when he arrived to pundit the final stages of the World Cup.
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The controversial cricketing gun-for-hire jetted into an immediate row with Glenn McGrath, the whole of Brisbane and South African great Jacques Kallis.
KP flew at one of the world’s finest fast bowlers when a clip of him being felled by a ‘Pigeon’ McGrath short ball in 2007 embarrassed him in front of millions watching on TV.
“He’s definitely not quick enough to break my ribs, I just made it look like it,” sneered the batsman, dubbed ‘The Ego’.
“I warned you for running down the pitch at me,” bounced McGrath, placed as far away from KP as possible on the interview couch.
“I rang the hospital the next day and they gave me an X-ray which I’ve got on the wall at home. I’ll sign it for you if you want. “What I liked most was the expression on your face when the ball hit you.”
Pietersen missed the remainder of the series, but said it was because he was fed up with losing and wanted to go home, so exaggerated the injury to doctors. No surprise there then.
The former England man, one of the world’s great Twitter users, poked fun at Brisbane for hardly featuring in the tournament. Warned he might receive a lot of flame mail from Queenslanders, KP charmed his way out of the situation saying: “They don’t tweet in Brisbane. They don’t have mobile phones…”
And on hearing that Kallis said the Proteas should talk to each other more to get over their reputation as ‘chokers’ he scoffed: “That amuses me. Kallis has never spoken to anyone in his life.”
Of course he also slagged off the English performance and the coaching staff. But then he would, wouldn’t he?
Brothers at Waugh
Do Australian superstar twins Steve and Mark Waugh even like each other any more? The sibling rivalry is one of the hottest debates in Oz sport. From the day Steve Waugh was dropped from the Test team for his younger (by four minutes) brother Mark, the two have rarely seen eye to eye.
And in recent years they have never been seen together and it appears, if not separated at birth, they are now. The two reach their half century in June and ‘Junior’ – who hit a then-record three tons at the 1996 World Cup – was cornered during a rain-break.
Now a national selector, he admitted: “We don’t see a lot of each other now. “Look, we lived in each other’s pockets until we were 38 and shared a bedroom until 17.”
It “was annoying at times”, said Mark, that he was seen as the stylish maverick, while biggest rival Steve was the dependable, gritty guy.
He revealed he was shocked to be told that his brother’s autobiography (which he hasn’t read) criticised him for not getting involved in running the team during a Windies tour.
“He didn’t say anything to me on tour, or I might have done something about it,” said Waugh Jr. “But I wouldn’t have had a clue how to get involved anyway.
“Somebody else had to tell me it was in the book. I’ve never mentioned it to him. But I might now,” adding that the hostility ran to only ever bowling bouncers at each other when they came face-to-face.
Food for thought
Meanwhile, the Indians, hungry to retain their world title, have taken the whingeing title from the Poms. Extreme travelling and poor practice wickets are one thing, but they’ve a bone of contention about the food, finding it hard to swallow.
Some might say that’s sour grapes. Not me.
When they toured Australia before the World Cup, the players and entourage booked out my favourite Indian restaurant in Sydney, the Spice Room, nearly every night, leaving me down in the mouth.
And here’s a sneak peek into India’s rooms at the @MCG. Not long until the players arrive! #INDvBAN #cwc15 https://t.co/VJEADAdDLK
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 19, 2015
Happy days for moi, but, unlucky for them, the qualifying rounds took them everywhere but the Harbour City. And I can vouch the curries were wonderful boys!
Foodnote: Strangely the hungry squad have won every game in the World Cup, but didn’t win one on the pre-tour. They even lost two games to England…
