Kevin Pietersen blow raises fresh questions

Kevin Pietersen told England about the Achilles tendon injury that has forced him to miss the NatWest Series against West Indies before heading to the Indian Premier League (IPL) last month.
The acknowledgement by Andrew Strauss, the captain, raises fresh questions over policy in an Ashes year after Andrew Flintoff injured his knee in the IPL.
On the day that Stuart Clark, Australia's leading wicket-taker in the 2006-07 series, said that he was close to completing a two-match contract to play for Gloucestershire before the forthcoming contest, the ECB's self-styled Great Exhibition of cricket in 2009 was in danger of looking more like the Millennium Dome than Crystal Palace.
The fiasco at Headingley Carnegie on Thursday left the one-day international against West Indies abandoned without a ball bowled after winter drainage work was not completed in time, while a similar £600,000 operation at Bristol, venue for the second game tomorrow, also remains unfinished in the wake of setbacks over the winter.
An ECB statement released on Wednesday said that Pietersen's injury had flared up during the second npower Test at Chester-le-Street and Strauss, while confirming that assessment by Nick Peirce, the board's chief medical officer, also revealed that the problem had arisen initially more than six weeks earlier.
“The first time 'KP' mentioned it was in the West Indies,” Strauss said. “It was something that was very manageable. I do not think the IPL affected this injury in any shape or form. Players can pick up injuries wherever they go. In Flintoff's case it is just a shame that the injury was picked up in the IPL.”
Pietersen, who also suffered a back spasm in the final week of the West Indies tour, captained Royal Challengers Bangalore in six games over 12 days, earning close to £500,000 for his efforts. The cartilage torn by Flintoff playing for Chennai Super Kings is taking longer to heal than initial estimates of three to five weeks.
Strauss said: “It is so hard to second-guess whether 'Fred' would have got injured anyway. Thankfully, there is still quite a lot of time before the Ashes. We fully expect 'KP' to be ready in ten days or so, there is no need to panic. It is something we have to deal with, with the schedules we have.”
However, the IPL is an additional commitment and Cricket Australia declined to release a number of contracted players, including Shane Watson, rather than “manage” injuries. On the same broad theme, it is unthinkable that a state side would sign an England bowler seeking to gain match fitness a month before the Ashes. That is what Gloucestershire are doing with Clark and the fast-medium bowler, whose move to Kent in April after elbow surgery was cancelled when Australia called him up for one-day games in South Africa, expects a backlash. “I am, actually, but I couldn't care less,” he said.
Critics of short-term signings, including Geoff Miller, the national selector, and Strauss, will note that Phillip Hughes spoke gratefully yesterday about his recent six weeks at Middlesex. “The big thing was getting to experience three of the Test grounds I will be playing on before the big series,” Hughes said.
The immediate concern for Gloucestershire is to host tomorrow's game successfully and a sunny weather forecast means that the outfield is unlikely to be tested. Some 1,700 of the 14,400 tickets remain and England will hope to repeat their success there in 2005, when a brilliant counter-attack by Pietersen helped to beat Australia.
England (from): A J Strauss (Middlesex, captain), R S Bopara (Essex), I R Bell (Warwickshire), O A Shah (Middlesex), E J G Morgan (Middlesex), P D Collingwood (Durham), A D Mascarenhas (Hampshire), M J Prior (Sussex), S C Broad (Nottinghamshire), G P Swann (Nottinghamshire), T T Bresnan (Yorkshire), R J Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), J M Anderson (Lancashire).
West Indies (from): C H Gayle (captain), L M P Simmons, R R Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, K A Pollard, D J Bravo, D Ramdin, D J G Sammy, R Rampaul, S J Benn, F H Edwards, L S Baker, R S Morton.
Source:The times