As Kevin Pietersen continues his pursuit of an improbable England return, we look at some other candidates with bouncebackability
Alan Gardner24-Mar-2015Geoff Boycott
The greatest scion of a Yorkshire dynasty of rhubarb-wielders, Boycott became the leading run-scorer in Test cricket while at same time winding up a large proportion of fans, administrators and team-mates. Sort of a batting anti-Pietersen, he was once dropped after scoring a double-hundred too slowly. Boycott excused himself from international selection for three years between 1974 and 1977, fretting about Yorkshire’s decline and supposedly unhappy at not being made England captain. Returned to play 45 more Tests, his talents undimmed – as evidenced by Ian Botham’s decision to run him out in Christchurch the following year.Brian Close
The youngest man to appear in a Test for England, Close was quite a bit more grizzled when he played for the last time against the West Indies in 1976, aged 45. Recalled after a nine-year absence, Close was helpfully namechecked by Tony Greig in his infamous quote about making the tourists “grovel”. At Old Trafford, in what was his final Test innings, Close withstood a fearsome short-ball barrage from the West Indians for two-and-a-half hours. Hard as they come, Close could probably still teach the current England side a thing or two about how to play Mitchell Johnson. If not quite as much with the chest.Ian Botham
England’s knight errant, Botham was the original comeback king. Given the captaincy aged 24, he quit after 12 Tests, during the 1981 Ashes – and promptly orchestrated England’s 500-1 turnaround triumph at Headingley. Five years later, he returned from a ban for smoking cannabis and took wickets with his first and 12th balls to pass Dennis Lillee’s Test record. “Who writes your scripts?” wondered Graham Gooch. Botham’s antics wrote tabloid headlines but he was back for a final hurrah in 1991, when he failed to get his leg over (for once) against West Indies, before helping England to the World Cup final.Andrew Flintoff
Another crowd-pleaser with bouncebackability. Flintoff rode the England rollercoaster for a decade and ended up being likened to the messiah – but he was also capable of being a very naughty boy. The “Fredalo” incident at the 2007 World Cup, following on from captaining England to an Ashes whitewash, might have left lesser mortals all washed up but Flintoff grabbed the limelight again by dominating the Australians with his famous arms-outstretched pose in 2009. That and he ran out Ricky Ponting. Has since resurrected his playing career with Lancashire and Brisbane Heat but might be better advised to stick to singing.Peter Moores
Moores didn’t play at international level – he got no further than keeping wicket for Sussex – but is part of an exclusive club of coaches to have taken charge of the same country twice. On the day that he was reappointed in 2014, Pietersen tweeted: “Everyone deserves a 2nd chance!” The subtext was clear – Pietersen, who helped get Moores the sack first time around, was admitting to an error of judgement and tacitly endorsing the man described by Paul Downton as “the outstanding coach of his generation”. That or he was just trying to get his place back. Either way, the point still stands.And one we’d like to see return…WG Grace
In some ways, he has never really gone away. The “Doctor” played for England at 50 and first-class cricket at nearly 60, so neither retirement nor death might be considered insurmountable obstacles. Still a genuine rival to Pietersen as one of the most recognisable faces in English cricket and with a similar-sized ego – though Grace is certainly more welcome at Lord’s, where his statue can be seen playing a crisp front-foot block. Might need to rein in the gambling and work on his fitness but, on the plus side, is unlikely to find that the game in England has moved on much since his time.
