Sydney: Cricket Australia has obtained a board approval to pursue English cricketer Kevin Pietersen to play in Australia’s domestic T20 competition, the Big Bash League (BBL).
Pietersen would only be available for the Australian Big Bash League season if his relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board doesn’t improve, or if he is allowed back into the Test team but not picked to play in the limited-over cricket.
Big Bash League boss Mike McKenna said that Pietersen, who was dropped for sending disparaging text messages about his teammates to the South African team, would have to be ``in the right frame of mind.``
“Obviously there is going to be a tipping point here where he is either going to be playing for England in Tests only, in all forms of the game, or not at all,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted McKenna, as saying.
“Once we know if he`s going to be available, we can talk to the ECB and see if there`s a way of getting him involved in an appropriate way. He has to be in a frame of mind where he can commit to a team,” he added.
After getting a green light from the CA board, Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Sixers have spoken to the tempestuous batsman`s management.
Pietersen`s isolation from the England team follows a remarkable self-promoted interview, in which he retracted his earlier retirement from limited-overs cricket and offered to curtail his lucrative Twenty20 gigs to play all formats for England, the paper said.
The ECB is yet to accept his change of decision, it added.
ANI
First Published: Sunday, August 19, 2012, 11:09