Twelve years after effectively being black-balled by the England & Wales Cricket Board, Kevin Pietersen has been appointed as a specialist mentor for the men’s white-ball teams ahead of the 2027 World Cup.

Pietersen’s brilliance as a batter was never in doubt. He was one of the finest of his generation.

Yet there were huge question marks over his personality and his ability to get on with his teammates.

The way he was dropped by England at the age of 33 following the 5-0 Ashes defeat in 2013-14 was ugly.

Nobody came out of it looking good, neither the ECB, Pietersen nor then-coach Andy Flower.

Time can smooth things and there is no doubt that at 46, Pietersen has matured and may have a lot to offer in a coaching capacity.

But bringing him into the England white-ball set-up still helmed by Brendon McCullum is a huge risk.

No doubt, Pietersen can add value and his specialist knowledge of conditions in South Africa, the country where he grew up, will be useful.

Yet there are risks. Rubbing people up the wrong way is fine if you are outside the tent, but inside? Haven’t we been here before?

It is just over a year since Pietersen spoke out about Harry Brook choosing to miss the 2025 Indian Premier League to concentrate on playing for England, despite having signed a deal with Delhi Capitals.

In an interview with , Pietersen, who was a batting mentor with Delhi, said he was “bitterly disappointed”, adding: “I think he is a star.

“He can properly play, but he has technical flaws in the sub-continent – in India, in particular. I really wanted to work with him, but people make their own choices in life and you’ve got to respect them. He has a flaw playing spin in India, a real big flaw.

“Two months here, imagine what might have happened if he had fixed that? I would’ve worked the same with him as I did with [Joe] Root and [Jonny] Bairstow at the start of their careers. Root turned out to be the greatest player of spin England’s ever had.”

It is just eight months since Pietersen last unleashed at the ECB.

After England’s shocking Ashes tour last winter, and after news of Brook’s altercation with a Wellington bouncer became public, Pietersen posted on X: ‘I’ll help with the thorough investigation that the ECB are going to conduct, right here, for free.

“Apart from [Ben] Stokes, Root, [Jofra] Archer, Bethell & Brook WITH a brain, the team isn’t good enough to compete with Australia or India.

“It’s proven just on this tour with Australia missing most of their best players. All the pre-tour game chat, discipline chat and now investigations, they are now mere distractions.”

Brook and McCullum, sacked as Test coach earlier this summer, have had some good results recently with England’s T20 and ODI teams.

There is a hope that England can at least be competitive in next year’s World Cup.

But do the potential gains of bringing Pietersen into the camp outweigh the possible negatives?

Here is a reminder of what the ECB accused him of after that 2013-14 tour of Australia in what was described as a “crime sheet” when it was leaked to in October 2014.

The ECB claimed at the time this was an internal legal document that was being prepared by lawyers as a possible response to Pietersen’s upcoming autobiography.

Among the allegations in it were that, before the final Ashes Test in Sydney, Pietersen stated Cook’s captaincy was “weak [and] tactically inept”, that he called Graeme Swann a “c***” and he said Flower should let the younger players “go out and get pissed”.

It alleged Pietersen said opener Michael Carberry was “useless” and asked: “Aren’t there any better players at county level?”

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There were also questions raised about Pietersen’s friendship with Piers Morgan.

The document stated: “It riled the team and management that KP allowed Piers Morgan to belittle AC [captain Alastair Cook] and the team on social media.

“When asked by some of his teammates to get Morgan to stop, KP laughed at the players and told them to get a thicker skin.”

Pietersen denied all the allegations and said the document was “embarrassing” and a “joke”.

This was all a long time ago, granted. But the ECB’s decision to now employ Pietersen, even if only as a consultant, is a remarkable turn of events.