Roger Alton Roger Alton

Spectator Sport | 21 June 2008

KP's Caper

issue 21 June 2008

I used to play squash with a distinguished veteran film critic, currently plying his trade on the London Evening Standard. I would force the ball to his backhand but the diminutive master of cinema would simply flick his racket from his right hand to his left and smash it back past me as a forehand drive. He was a keen cricketer too, but I don’t think he ever tried to do what Kevin Pietersen did to a bemused Scott Styris up in Durham on Sunday.

The hoo-hah about Pietersen’s astounding switch-hit has been wondrous. Is it within the laws? (Yes, for now.) Is it within the spirit of the game? (Hmmm.) Can anybody do it? (Come off it.) Rule-book obsessives can speculate that if the bowler had a couple of slips and a backward point, it would then be a no-ball because three men are behind square on the leg side.

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