The dreams of helping England defend their World Twenty20 title appeared to have been smashed for Kevin Pietersen as the blasting cricketer has been left out of a provisional 30-man squad, which was announced on Wednesday.

Pietersen, England's man of the tournament when they won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean two years ago, their first major limited overs title, recently retired from all white ball internationals.

However, the South Africa-born batsman wanted to continue to play Twenty20 matches while opting out of 50 overs per side one-day international fixtures. But England said the terms of his central contract meant he had to be available for both of those formats and that the only alternative was to opt out of all limited overs international cricket, which he duly did.

His representatives have tried to find a way of changing the situation over the past week, because Pietersen has always been keen to play in the world T20. But their proposals have not been acceptable to the England and Wales Cricket Board, which means that Pietersen is likely to be offered a contract for Test cricket only when his current deal expires in September, a significant reduction in terms.

Well, this definitely comes as sad one for KP fans!

Source: TNN