Kevin Pietersen said Sunday he still wanted to help England defend their World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka in September, despite announcing his retirement from limited overs internationals. The South Africa-born batsman was man of the tournament when England won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean two years ago. But he quit all limited overs internationals last week when he was told by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) the terms of his England central contract would not allow him his wish of abandoning 50-over one-day matches while still playing Twenty20 fixtures for his adopted country. “I’ve said I’ll play the T20 World Cup,” Pietersen explained. “If they (England) want me to play the T20 World Cup, I’ll play the T20 World Cup. “But contracts are contracts. They’d have to change the rules to make that happen.”
Pietersen, who also plays in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL), was adamant it was no longer possible for him to perform to his best in all three international formats in what is an increasingly congested programme “I’d had enough of the schedule. I can’t carry on doing everything. I play every single form of cricket that there is. “Apart from (India captain) MS Dhoni, I’ve played the most days of international cricket over the past seven years. “There comes a time when some form of the game has to be taken out of my schedule. One-day cricket was it. “If the schedules weren’t like that, or I played for another country where you had months and months occasionally to rest and recuperate, or if I had the opportunities to be rested (things might be different), but you don’t get those opportunities when you play for England.”
