ICC posts Kevin Pietersen’s before-after pictures; cricketer gives a hilarious response

Cricketing bodies and personalities around the world are busy killing time since the pandemic called coronavirus has paralyzed the world of sport. Cricket has been no exception as series and tournaments around the planet have been scrapped. While the Pakistan Super League 2020 failed to get the final touches, the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League remains uncertain.

However, amid the paralysis in the cricketing world, the International Cricket Council (ICC) posted something funny and it was about former England captain Kevin Pietersen. The international cricket governing body posted a combination of two images of KP, one from 2001 and another from 2020 and its caption read: “2001 – 2020. Cricket time-lapse feat. @KP24.”

‘Red wine,’ tweets Kevin Pietersen

The 39-year-old Pietersen, who now chips in as a cricket commentator and analyst, came up with an equally good response. He responded saying “Red wine” to signify that he only gets better with age like the hard drink.

Pietersen played almost a decade for England to play in 104 Tests, 136 ODIs and 37 T20Is in which he scored over 13,000 runs with 32 international hundreds. The South African-born cricketer had promised to be one of England’s all-time greats though he fell short of 10k runs in the longer format in which he averaged above 47.

Meanwhile, India’s three-match ODI series against South Africa at home was canceled for the time being because of the coronavirus scare and the cricket boards of the two countries are yet to take a decision on their rescheduling. Nearly 8,000 people all over the world have been killed in the pandemic while two lakhs have been affected. In India, there have been reports of three deaths so far while 147 were affected.

All eyes will now be on the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November. Although the threat of the virus is high at the moment, Cricket Australia is confident that it will not be a major issue at the time of the tournament.

“We’re really hoping that all forms of sport can be played again in a few weeks or a few months’ time,” CA chief Kevin Roberts was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.