Cardiff, July 10: Legendary fast bowler Michael Holding has claimed that Kevin Pietersen was wasting his potential and does not deserve to be amongst the cricket
greats.
Holding came down heavily on Pietersen, especially the way he got out to Nathan Hauritz on the opening day of the first Ashes Test here, sweeping him from outside the off-stump and the ball ballooned in the air to short-leg fielder.
”KP has the potential to be a great player .. but great players don’t do things like that,” Holding claimed. The fast bowling legend said it was a waste of talent as after getting a good start, Pietersen should have carried on to score a century and the former England skipper was letting his team down time and again. ”He was totally on top of the bowling and gave away his wicket.
He should have just pulled out of the shot. Kevin Pietersen has so much talent, he can destroy bowling attacks. ”You shouldn’t be getting into the 60s and 70s without getting a hundred. That is letting your team down and that’s letting yourself down,” Holding, who is also a commentator for the Ashes series here, said yesterday.
While criticisms came in thick and fast for Pietersen, Australian coach Tim Nielsen asked him to keep attempting to manufacture cheeky shots. ”That’s the way he plays. He tends to take the game on,” Nielsen said. ”He was pretty keen not to let our spinners settle. He’d swept probably 15 times during the innings beforehand and played the ball quite well. ”If a guy nicks a cover drive, you don’t tell him to stop cover driving. He hits the sweep shot well. If he hits one in the air or misses one, that’s the way it goes,” said the Aussie coach.
—–Agencies