Product Description

Once the opinionated, party-going socialite, complete with celebrity girlfriends and ridiculous haircuts, Kevin Pietersen has developed into the biggest crowd pleaser in English cricket, some would say modern sport. This fascinating and well-researched biography draws on interviews with Pietersen and those who know him best, including many of his mentors, team-mates and opponents. As Pietersen prepares for his biggest challenge yet - leading England's attempt to regain the Ashes from Australia - this unique appraisal tells, for the first time, the full story behind Britain's most exhilarating and successful sportsman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29132 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
A Must, not just for all KP fans, but for all cricket fans. 4/5. --Shropshire Star

About the Author
Wayne Veysey is a sports journalist who writes for the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Sunday Times and Spin cricket magazine. He also regularly appears on Setanta Sports News. He was sports correspondent of the London Evening Standard from 2003-2006 and has also worked for the Press Association and Shropshire Star.

Customer Reviews

Time for Charisma ?
Having been an avid sports fan all my life , I was more then a little dissapointed in myself to have never read a biography on any one of crickets top players. I have always enjoyed the game but never found any of the top stars that , well entertaining ! even the Warnes and Bothams of the game over the years.
I was obviously drawn to "KP Cricket Genious?" by the shear brilliance and persona of the man himself ! After reading the blurb and then forword by "Clive Rice " I launched into the first chapter where the passion and ability of the author had me hooked straight away.
"Veysey" guides us through the early years of KPs sporting life after I believe doing it seems much in depth research both in the UK and South Africa and does not "pull any punches" of opinion , as do not the many famous names appearing through the book . My usual reading speed is poor to say the least ! But this title has lasted but two weeks . Plain, simple as bread and jam for the non too bright jock like myself to read , yet punchy and highbrow like only cricket could be .
for me A1 -110 % and I hope the first of many !
Jim Griffin

A travesty of a "biography" in almost every way
By early summer 2009 Kevin Pietersen has played 52 Test matches in just four years scoring some 4500 runs at an average of around 50. Whilst for KP to cash in with an "autobiography" in 2006 after just a year in the game was premature for there to be a provisional biography now is perhaps not unreasonable. Except that "KP Cricket Genius" is a "cash-in" as well - clearly timed to appear before the 2009 Ashes series and also to attract buyers whilst the KP England captaincy affair is till fresh in the mind. One day, no doubt, someone will write an in-depth and thoughtful analysis of the phenomenon that is Kevin Pietersen. Wayne Veysey's ill-written, woefully edited, cliché-ridden little book certainly isn't that. Full of typos, gratuitous factoids, hero-worshipping hyperbole, needless insults and wearying repetitions the book may appeal to the semi-literate KP fan - but cricket enthusiasts looking for real insights into Pietersen will have to wait.

The book could be required reading on a sub-editing training course - as an example of what can happen if editors are slipshod. Sensitive readers will be shaken by the frequent use of the abbreviation "X1" for a cricket eleven instead of "XI", by the occasional use of the term "cricket player" rather than "cricketer", by the ignorant assertion that in South Africa all black people were called "coloured" and by countless other inaccuracies and solecisms. To some extent this is a shame because to be fair there are some insights into KP's character and background and the description of (for example) the struggle between Pietersen and Peter Moores is good. But the insults really should have been edited out. To say that Andrew Flintoff was once "...boozing his hefty Lancashire contract up the walls of Preston's public houses" is crass and Ian Botham's lawyers might be interested in Veysey's allegation that Beefy got "fat and complacent in the second half of his career".

The best thing in the book is Clive Rice's thoughtful foreword but Rice's assertion, that Pietersen "knew full well that in South Africa he wouldn't be given a chance because of the stupid quota system" is as ignorant as it is offensive. KP would surely have made it in South Africa despite the quotas, just as fellow-whites AB De Villiers, Johan Botha, Albie and Morne Morkel, Roel Van der Merwe, Dale Steyn, Paul Harris and others have recently made it. This key aspect of Pietersen's life demands more balanced and sensitive treatment than it gets in this pot-boiler.