The decision by newly-installed England cricket director Andrew Strauss to tell Kevin Pietersen, 34-year-old enfant terrible of English cricket, and a former Ashes-winning team-mate of Strauss’s, that he was not in his country’s summer plans was one of those moments everyone had an opinion on  - not least because the batsman had just clobbered a career-best triple century for his county Surrey.

The story’s resonance - it allowed this most traditional of sports one of its periodic excursions onto the newspaper front pages - was in large part down to timing: results have been disappointing of late for England, with a dreadful World Cup followed by a final Test defeat in Bridgetown which robbed them of victory in the recent three-Test series against the West Indies.

What is more, the one cricketing event still guaranteed to transfix the nation - a home Ashes Series against Australia - is fast approaching, and armchair/part-time fans are itching for change, especially with a 5-0 drubbing in Australia in 2013-2014 to avenge.

Though now in the latter stages of his career, Pietersen is pure box office, on and off the pitch.

In a world increasingly driven by percentages and data, the Pietermaritzburg-born batsman’s brand of cricket is all about flair and character.

An outspoken maverick who rubs many up the wrong way, he is one of those players whose impact on a game is not always fully reflected by his statistics: his Test match average of 47.28 is good, but not great.

No matter that Pietersen was in the team that suffered a demoralising whitewash the last time the old adversaries confronted each other in the five-day format of the game.

He was England’s leading run scorer in that series, but with a comparatively modest average of 29.

This suggests that the gulf between the sides might be difficult to bridge with or without the blessed Kevin.

That distinctly fallible figure from 2013-2014, however, is not, I suspect, what many of the less dedicated, though not necessarily less opinionated, England cricket fans see when they think of Pietersen.

In 2006, a big change came over English cricket; this was when live coverage switched to pay-TV.

But the sport had saved its best till last for free-to-air viewers: this was the monumental and utterly gripping 2005 Ashes Series, won 2-1 by England, which captivated the nation almost as comprehensively as the London 2012 Olympics that the capital city had won the right to stage in Singapore a couple of weeks before the series started.

Anyone who doubts that this was the best series of Test matches in the long and venerable history of the game, might care to consider the Wisden Editor’s views on the matter.

“Journalists still tended to write that we had witnessed Probably The Greatest Test (Edgbaston), Probably The Greatest Series and Probably The Greatest Crowd To Greet A Victorious England Team,” he pronounced.

“There is no need for the nervous adverb.

“This was The Greatest.

“The 2005 Ashes surpassed every previous series in cricket history on just about any indicator you choose.”

The last day of that series in South London was dominated by a brilliant 158 by Pietersen - sporting a badger-style hair-do as ghastly as some of his shot-making was sublime - that was enough to ensure that England held on to draw that Fifth and final Test, and clinch the series.

Everything about the innings was superlative: it was Pietersen’s maiden Test match century; it included more sixes - seven - than any previous innings in Ashes Tests.

He even faced his first ball with the old warhorse, Glenn McGrath, on a hat-trick - the ball cannoned off his shoulder into a fielder’s hand, prompting ecstatic if momentary Australian celebrations.

I can only imagine what the viewing figures must have built to in workplaces around the country as the tension grew, to be superseded, perhaps around tea-time, perhaps slightly later, by a steadily swelling sense of national euphoria.

That is one of the beauties of a game as slow as Test Match cricket: emotions which can be just as intense as those triggered by, say, the 1966 World Cup final, ratchet up with exquisite slowness, rendering them all the more memorable.

As a former Financial Times reporter, I can tell you that the volume of shares traded on the London stock markets that day was down about 20 per cent from usual levels.

This, I would suggest, is the Kevin Pietersen whom so many appear to want to see restored to England’s Ashes team, after it faces a testing two-match early summer series against New Zealand.

For all the concentration and brilliance he displayed during the course of the massive 355 not out he eventually compiled this week against the unfortunate Leicestershire attack, that plainly is an impossibility.

One of the surest ways of dealing with the criticism that often comes when sports teams decide to dispense with the services of sublimely talented mavericks is to create a new side that is manifestly better.

Take the example of Eric Cantona, a genius comparable to Pietersen, who played his last football match for France, against Holland, aged just 28.

That was in January 1995, just before his notorious kung fu-style kick and subsequent eight-month suspension.

Having started the ban as national captain, by the time he returned - setting up a goal for his team Manchester United against arch-rivals Liverpool within two minutes - he was deemed surplus to requirements by the national side.

This might have seemed strange, given his continued exploits in the Premier League.

Within three years, however, French coach Aimé Jacquet’s rebuilt team had won the country’s first World Cup.

This example also underscores one way in which footballers are luckier than cricketers, or indeed most other athletes active in sports where international fixtures are the be all and end all.

Though losing his place in the national team, Cantona was still able to test his skills at the highest level by turning out for one of the world’s best club sides.

This was a consequence of the audience appeal, and resultant media-generated riches, of the elite club game: for some years now, it is generally accepted, the best football teams on the planet have represented clubs not countries.

Barring a highly improbable Aaron Cook-style switch of nationalities - and Moldova are not much good at cricket - there is nowhere for Pietersen to turn to replicate the buzz he doubtless gets from playing for England against Australia.

Yes, strong performances in the short-form Indian Premier League must yield much satisfaction, and can certainly top up the wallets of those who participate.

But I don’t imagine that Pietersen can derive the fulfilment from battering Gloucestershire and Northants to all parts that was still open to Cantona by, for example, scoring the winning goal in the 1996 FA Cup final and becoming the first player from outside the British Isles to lift the famous old trophy as captain.  

In this, as in much else about their lives, top footballers have a great deal to be thankful for.