Aussie players rate KP as world's best.

by Red Sat 04 Jul 2009, 04:12

Pietersen 'the world's best'

Chloe Saltau, Worcester
July 4, 2009

KEVIN Pietersen is the best batsman in the world. Just ask him. "You are not God, you are a cricketer, and I'm a better one," he said to India's Yuvraj Singh during a Test in Mohali last year.
It turns out many of Pietersen's Ashes opponents agree with him. In a survey of Australian cricketers this year, players contracted to Cricket Australia were asked to name the best batsman in the world outside Australia, and Pietersen (with 50% of the vote) was by far the most popular choice.
Not Sachin Tendulkar, the little master who has made more Test runs than anyone else and flayed Australian attacks for 18 years but did not attract a vote from Cricket Australia-contracted players (state players still hold him in high regard). Not Graeme Smith (7 %), who at the time of the survey had just peeled off 1656 runs in a calendar year and led South Africa to inflict Australia's first defeat on home soil for 16 years, or his Proteas teammate Jacques Kallis (also 7%). The other 34 per cent went for Kumar Sangakkara, the classy Sri Lankan who had recently played as well as any touring batsman to fall just short of a double century against the Australians in Hobart.
It is little wonder Pietersen is regarded by the Australians as the Englishman to be feared most in this Ashes series. Batsmen want to be him, envying his audaciousness, and bowlers want to be a long way away from him. Pietersen has made 963 runs at 53.50 against Australia, but the 29-year-old's attitude that attracts just as much admiration as his record. The arrogrance apparent in his outstanding sledge to Yuvraj has made him a divisive and abrasive character in dressing rooms, condemning him to a short and turbulent reign as England captain, but it has also made him a champion.
"He's the sort of player that is always taking the game forward. I'm not sure of his strike rate in Test cricket (63.35) but generally when he makes runs he gets them at a pretty good speed," said Ricky Ponting, who would have stolen some votes from Pietersen if the survey had covered Australian players.
"He's always putting it back on the bowler, the way he moves his feet, the way he walks across the stumps and does things, it's continually challenging the bowler. That in itself says a lot about you. You need great confidence to be able to do that, because if you get out doing that, at the end of the day you can punish yourself.
"He's got a very good Test record, he averages over 50 and that's not an easy thing to do as a top order player," the Australian captain said, and he should know. "I think Pietersen is their classiest player. He's aggressive, he takes the game on, and those sort of players, when they start to get going, they can bring a few more of their teammates along with them. He hasn't been in his best form in the last half a dozen or 10 Test matches he's played but I still think he's the most dangerous."http://www.watoday.com.au/news/sport/cricket/pietersen-the-worlds-best/2009/07/03/1246127690242.html?page=2