Kevin Pietersen: I’m pantomime villian in Australia

Pietersen says he had developed the skill of ignoring the abuse that he was hurled at in Australia.

Oct 13, 2014

England discard Kevin Pietersen has revealed the amount of abuse and criticism that he has faced in Australia, saying that at times he felt like escaping from the country as soon as cricket is over.

Pietersen, according to the Cricket Australia (CA) official website, has revealed about the relentless abuse that he has faced Down Under, in his controversial autobiography ‘KP’.

“When the cricket is done I never hang around in Australia. Once the job is finished I am out of there like a bat out of hell – there’s just too much abuse. My wife, my child, my mother-in-law and my parents were all in Australia (during The Ashes 2013-14),” Pietersen wrote.

“We needed to get out. I’d had enough abuse. Is abuse too strong a word? Maybe. The Aussies think it is all good fun, but when you are at the end of a long and disastrous tour, when you have people you love around you and you’re being called a wanker ten times a day, the joke wears thin.

“I’m the pantomime villain in Australia. I’m the one getting the boos and the abuse. They basically clean me out for three months.”

Pietersen was axed by England earlier this year after the disastrous show in The Ashes 2013-14, wherein the tourists were blanked 5-0 by a rampaging Australian side.

“At the Adelaide Oval, the public can get up right next to the nets, so there were hundreds of people watching, booing and hissing – I’m the pantomime villain in Australia, after all. I had Australian guys abusing me from a metre away: you’re f..ing shit, mate … what a f..ing shit shot … you can’t score runs in the nets, mate … great shot today, I’m sure your teammates are proud … you’ve let your country down … why don’t you f… off back to South Africa … hey KP, you’re a wanker …”

Pietersen says he had developed the skill of ignoring the abuse that he was hurled at.

“Usually, although I can’t not hear it, I can ignore it. I’ve developed selective hearing. So when someone calls me an idiot, or someone calls me a genius, I can laugh it off. But in Australia it’s different,” Pietersen continued.

“They are getting under your skin from the start. Sometimes it’s abuse. Sometimes it’s just deliberately annoying, like having a guy screaming Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeevin, Keeeeeeeeeeeeevin over and over again for a few hours when you are fielding. Right behind you. Over and over and over and over again, until you convince yourself that no jury would convict you for killing the bastard.”

“And in Australia, the pressure doesn’t end when the playing ends. The cricket media and the cricket public see the Tests as a blood sport. Everywhere you go, they are on your case. Me especially. Walking down the street I get told, you’re bloody shit mate, thirty times a day. I’m just a plastic bloody pom, I’m going to get hit so hard I’ll be eating through a straw …”

More from Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography here