Everything good about Kevin Pietersen shone through in one glorious innings in 2005 ©AFP/Getty Images


This might seem strange to non-cricket fans, but England, leading the five match series 2-1, required only a draw to secure their first Ashes series win against Australia in over 18 years. This effectively meant batting out the final day of the five-day match without losing all of their wickets, and with five of their best batsman out by lunch and some brilliant Aussie bowlers at their bewildering best, the signs were not good. Pietersen was hanging on, just, having been hit several times by some hostile fast bowling.

As the last top batsman left, if he was out, England appeared doomed, and it only seemed a matter of time before he was.

But after lunch he adopted a different tactic, bravely deciding that attack was the best form of defence as he started dispatching these revered bowlers to all parts of the Oval ground. It was remarkable, an innings which defied all logic and showed that nothing is simpler than sport at its best. Pietersen scored 158 to secure England the draw and a legend was set in motion.

Yet, by then he was already acquiring a reputation that was not always positive. Sporting a distinct bleached white streak in his hair, he was seen as precocious, and while there were plenty more match-winning innings, there were plenty of stupid dismissals as well, including one which provoked the memorable tabloid headline: "Dumb slog millionaire". In 2008 he was handed the England captaincy and it was nothing short of disastrous. Tension grew between skipper and coach, Peter Moores, and after one bad tour too many, both were sacked. Pietersen remained in the team, but purely as a batsman. 

He duly performed well as England won much over the next three years but there were more problems in 2012 as KP was dropped after allegedly sending critical texts about Andrew Strauss, the man who replaced him as captain, to South African opponents. Less was made of the fact that, at the same time, a parody Twitter account had been set up making fun of "KP Genius", with several of his England team mates said to be behind it.

After being forced to make grovelling apologies to each of his team mates, Pietersen returned to the team only to be fired again in 2014 after being handed the blame for an abject 5-0 Ashes loss to Australia. Although he did not play well, he was not the only one, and as England slid to an equally appalling World Cup Pool Stage exit this month in Australia and New Zealand, most people believe the team would have benefited from having their best hitter in the team.

England struggled with Kevin Pietersen, but they struggled more without him as they laboured to a pool stage exit at the Cricket World Cup ©Getty Images



It remains to be seen whether he will ever return, but in the meantime, he has released a destructive autobiography - expertly ghostwritten by David Walsh, the Sunday Times journalist credited with a key role in exposing the doping of Lance Armstrong - which has staunchly and ruthlessly criticised team mates, coaches, administrators and reporters alike.

Now, in this diatribe, Pietersen was certainly not blameless. He is clearly a difficult person to work with, and, in a way, it seems remarkable that he was put up with for so long. Yet, at the same time, he was a player of such unique talent, more should have been done to embrace and encourage him. He should not have been given special circumstances necessarily, just the occasional concession or kind word to a man who would otherwise always feel the victim.

Similar themes can be found in the equally wonderful autobiography of Zlatan Ibrahimović, the Sweden and Paris Saint Germain footballer who was in the headlines last week after getting sent-off, some would say unfairly, after Chelsea opponents furiously berated the referee following a foul tackle. In his book, Ibrahimović praised some coaches, like Fabio Capello and current Chelsea boss José Mourinho, for the way they had managed him, while berating others, like Barcelona's Pep Guardiola, for failing to get the best out of him.

Zlatan Ibrahimović is another precocious talent who benefits from certain styles of management more than others ©Getty Images


Yet, we must remember of course, that Guardiola certainly worked for some of the other Barcelona stars, and Capello's authoritarian style certainly did not work for England at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. So, once again, every player must be handled differently.

Gareth Bale is a completely different example. The Real Madrid striker is on the opposite side of the sporting spectrum to figures like Pietersen or Ibrahimović. He is calm, uncontroversial, boring even, which in the rigours of professional sport today is almost certainly a good thing. He seems to have more in common with a down to earth Olympian than a millionaire footballer, and you rarely hear much about his private life in the tabloids.

The similarities lie in his talent and ability to win a match in a single moment of genius, as he did in last season's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona with a blistering solo effort.

Yet this season he is beginning to struggle, being singled out, like Pietersen, for his team's collective faults and losing confidence as a result of the accusation that he is a "selfish" player.

A problem for both Pietersen and Bale, as well as Ibrahimović when he was at Barcelona, is that while stars in their respective teams, there are some equally big names, and big egos, among their team mates, or in the case of FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, even bigger ones.

Under-fire Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale cups his ears after finally breaking his goal drought against Levante following criticism from both the fans and the media ©Getty Images

Last night, Bale scored his first two goals in 800 minutes of club football in a 2-0 win over Levante, but it was clouded by Ronaldo - who was heavily involved in each - appearing disgruntled after each goal was scored. 

While Bale's problems seem to lie with team mates, fans, and some Madrid-based journalists rather than his manager Carlo Ancelotti necessarily, it is the responsibility of the management to make one of their star players feel loved. They should seek to end any feud with Ronaldo, make clear than some below par performances are not Bale's fault and emphasise the positive impact he has on the team.

If they don't, a big money summer transfer to an English Premier League club seems inevitable.

And a team need look only at the awfulness of England's Cricket World Cup exit to realise that, usually, it is better to have your big players present than not selected and sitting in the commentary box, as Pietersen has done over the last month.