On a day when an IT major from India went kaput with startling revelations and resignation from a fraudulent promoter, another cricketer in-charge, in another part of the world did just that – resign from captaincy – albeit over different reasons. Kevin Pietersen’s sojourn as the captain of the England cricket team ended as abruptly as it had begun five months ago, after a public fallout of his woes with the English coach, Peter Moores. This left English cricket in a crisis similar to what Australia is also facing currently, and that is a need to start all over from scratch.
With the Ashes around six months away, it was Pietersen’s dynamicity that had been expected the England team to take a step closer to regaining the coveted and premier test championship. All of those dreams – mostly Pietersen’s – would have crashed in vain now. Apparently, the coach-captain duo had had their run-ins ever since the skipper had taken charge, and through the tumultuous phase, their relationship had culminated into something very different from what a Virender Sehwag shares with Gautam Gambhir! The last throw of the dice had been Pietersen’s desire to have former skipper, Michael Vaughan in the team which had been purportedly assured by the coach, but subsequently not honoured, as Pietersen holidayed away in the Africa.
Back-stabbed, Pietersen had rushed back to England and had had close talks with the ECB, probably expecting more support than what he eventually got. With not a lot of it too forthcoming, Pietersen seemed to have enough of it, and took the ultimate step of resigning. What Dhoni had jokingly mentioned to the selectors, Pietersen actually went on to execute.
At the other end of the spectrum, is Andrew Strauss who was one test match failure from been dropped on a more permanent, but a century in each innings in the Chennai test match against India ended all that speculation. He retained his spot, and now would replace Pietersen as the leader of the pack. Cricket, like life, comes a full circle, always!
For now, it is not clear whether Strauss would also captain the English side for the ODIs, but if that were to happen, it would mean that Strauss would have to be recalled to the shorter version after a period of almost 22 months in wilderness. One man’s loss could very well be another one’s gain! With Moores out of the coaching seat as well, it would be interesting to follow who replaces the man. Some of the names that have been thrown around have been the likes of Andy Flower, Ashley Giles and Graham Ford – of the now-I-am-the-Indian-coach-and-now-I-am-not fame. The dynamics of the team would be affected drastically too, as Pietersen had forged together a fighting bunch with the comeback of the likes of Andrew Flintoff and Stephen Harmison, and the duo had begun to respond well to Pietersen’s leadership too. Such was the extent of his say, that the English had agreed to return back to India after the Mumbai terror attacks, something that could not have been envisaged under previous captains, and Pietersen would have had played his part in the same.
Yet, what would have surprised the who’s who of English cricket would have been the lack of tact that was shown by Pietersen after having chosen to stamp his authority in the matter. There may be fingers pointed towards his hunger to lead a country which had originally not been his – he was born a South African – but had embraced and accepted the former Proteas as their own. 
This is not to say that Moores had been speck-less in his dealings, as he had had his problems with the previous captain, Vaughan too. In fact, Vaughan had agreed to pen down his memoirs with Moores in his autobiography, and most of them are not supposed to be too hunky-dory!
It would be interesting to see what this episode ends in, but for now, the English would hope that it doesn’t create a scenario where Pietersen’s batting gets affected by it all, and adversely at that. English cricket can ill-afford that.