Kevin Pietersen has been discarded from England's World Twenty20 squad to conclude an international career that has provided controversy and brilliance in equal measure, as the selectors look to rebuild the team following their disastrous recent tour of Australia.
Pietersen's future was decided on Monday in a meeting of England's management that included Paul Downton, the new managing director of England cricket. While Downton rubber-stamped the unanimous -decision yesterday, Pietersen was -giving a masterclass on how to play spin bowling at the Kia Oval.
Their decision to jettison Pietersen in order to plan for the future has seen the fallout from England Ashes debacle increase from the team director, the No?3 Jonathan Trott, the
off-spinner Graeme Swann, to the most talented batsman. When that much collateral occurs it is the end of an era let alone a team.
That poor showing in the Ashes could not be laid solely at Pietersen's feet as he was the best of a poor bunch. But at 33, with an increasingly dicky knee, he appears to be on the wane as a batsman, at least that is how Downton spun it presumably with one eye on the obligations in Pietersen's central contract.
"Clearly this was a tough decision because Kevin has been such an outstanding player for England," Downton said last night.
"However everyone was aware that there was a need to begin the long- term planning after the Australia tour. Therefore we have decided the time is right to look to the future and start to rebuild not only the team but also team ethic and philosophy."
Those last words are telling, at least when it comes to Pietersen, whose relationship with his team-mates has shifted from good to bad to indiff-erent almost as long as he has been in the team.
His behaviour, as it has done for a while, exasperated those in -command. Many felt he was lucky to be given second chance after he messaged South African players about Andrew Strauss in 2012, a betrayal that saw him dropped for the first time in his career.
His return to the team for the tour of India a few months later meant he had to be on best behaviour but when that lapsed, as it had done this winter in Australia with talk of stand-up rows with Andy Flower and Alastair Cook, something had to give. The row with Flower came after the Melbourne Test where Pietersen confronted -England's team director over his increasingly "headmasterly approach", something that the team had -discussed at a meeting allegedly called by Matt Prior the day before.
Like his attempted putsch with Peter Moores, England's coach when he was captain, it has resulted in both him and Flower being shown the exit.
That is the most damning thing for England supporters who feel -Pietersen can do no wrong - he has been sacrificed, when England are most in need of their special talents, for an ideal. You have to be some piece of work to deserve that.
He, or at least his lawyers are unlikely to go quietly and he and his agent spent most of yesterday afternoon deep in meetings.
If it suggests a scrap on the legal front, his comments over parting company with the team that has been his life and livelihood for the past nine years were gracious.
"Playing cricket for my country has been an honour. Every time I pulled on the England shirt was a moment of huge pride for me and that is something that will live with me forever," Pietersen said.
"Although I am obviously very sad the incredible journey has come to an end, I'm also hugely proud of what we, as a team, have achieved over the past nine years.
"I believe I have a great deal still to give as a cricketer. I will continue to play but deeply regret that it won't be for England."
He can now make himself available for an entire Indian Premier League, something that is bound to increase his value. The Surrey player can also make himself available for the Big Bash and be the roving buccaneer he always thought he wanted to be once the big money shifted to Twenty20.
England will miss him, players of his scope and talent do not come around that often. Pietersen scored 8,181 Test runs from 104 Tests including 23 hundreds and 4,440 one-day runs, to make him England's highest scorer of international runs. Yet, it was his ability to dismantle bowling attacks where his true value lay.
Steve Waugh always reckoned there were no fairy tales in sport and Pietersen's departure from international cricket, with a whimper, ends one of more exciting and contradictory England cricketing careers of recent times on a frustrating note.
As someone whose public stock was a lot higher than those he spent most of time with, Pietersen will be remembered differently with the close-up view being that of a defiantly individual player who never quite slotted into the team ethos, but one who never took guard with the bars full.
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