Video: Pietersen resigns | Video: Pietersen's press conference

Strauss asked to pick up the pieces | England's flawed genius | Atherton: Strauss must heal England's rifts | CMJ: England's captain-coach relationship vital | Pietersen: gamble that failed when going got tough | Atherton: Ashes now depends on Pietersen's reaction | County executives back Moores to return | Pietersen is oblivious as cricket world collapses around him

A Poirot-size clue to the character of Kevin Pietersen glares from the front cover of his autobiography. “Cocky and confident. I love it,” Geoffrey Boycott roars in a soundbite that obviously met approval from the now former England captain. Some of us would feel insulted at being described as “cocky”. Pietersen takes it as a compliment.

One man’s cockiness or arrogance is another’s self-belief. It can make the difference between being good and great. No other England batsman, not even Andrew Flintoff, would have had the confidence and audacity to attempt to hook his way out of trouble against Brett Lee at the Brit Oval in 2005. Pietersen scored 158 and the draw secured the Ashes. Nobody accused him of selfishness that dizzy afternoon.

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Six months before the start of the critical series, and the England team has lost both its captain and its coach, says Michael Atherton

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BACKGROUND

• Strauss offers a safe pair of hands

• County chiefs tip Moores to return

• Pietersen and Moores disunited

Multimedia

Captain-coach relationship is vital

The incompatibility that led to yesterday's dramatic events has echoes throughout the history of the game

• Kevin Pietersen: celebrity player is god who moves in a mysterious way

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BACKGROUND

• Ford puts his name in the frame

• Pietersen and Moores need to eat humble pie

• The rise and fall of Peter Moores

Times Archive, 1974: Boycott walks out

To an uncommon degree, Boycott is a man driven by personal ambition. This being so he finds it more difficult than most to accept a subordinate position

• Times Archive: Sport

Related Links

• Pietersen and Moores disunited

• Pietersen: a player who moves in mysterious ways

But there is a thin line in team sport between bringing that edge, that something extra, and upsetting colleagues. Pietersen has an unhappy knack of crossing it. This time, it seems he overestimated the strength of feeling in the ranks against Peter Moores. While he was not responsible for kicking their differences into the public domain on New Year’s Eve, he did nothing to temper reports when he had the chance.

A rounded appraisal should always give the other side of the story. Pietersen is no devil incarnate. He is unfailingly polite, respectful and hard-working. And he is not stupid. Moores had often described him as the most assiduous member of the squad when it came to practice and preparation. If he enjoys the upside of fame, then he has earned the privileges that come along with success.

During his five months at the helm, Pietersen went out of his way in front of the media to say what he thought was the right thing. If anything he went too far, lavishing praise so generously that its worth became devalued. No doubt he meant well, too, when he said that Allen Stanford’s Superstars needed the millions on offer more than the England players during the ill-fated week in Antigua. He was probably right, but the words came over as condescending.

Much is made of his “natural talent”, but Pietersen was no batting prodigy. In 1999 he played for Natal against the touring England side as an off spinner. He told Nasser Hussain, the England captain, that he needed to leave in search of greater opportunities. He was a victim of the system in South Africa, where positive discrimination after apartheid demanded a minimum number of non-white players in the side. On one occasion, when he was left out to accommodate Gulam Bodi, Pietersen flung a water bottle across the dressing-room and shouted: “I’m leaving here.”

Warwickshire and Derbyshire rejected the chance to sign him. Nottinghamshire, managed by Clive Rice, who knew of Pietersen from South Africa, eventually offered terms and blooded him at No 6. Matters turned acrimonious when Mick Newell replaced Rice. There are similarities between Newell and Moores. Both were honest county players and are very solid men. But Pietersen, in a foretaste of what was to come, simply felt that Newell was not up to the job; his opinion no doubt influenced when Newell dropped him early in their relationship. At least Moores never went that far.

The situation boiled over in 2003. Pietersen said that he wanted to leave and told Newell that he did not rate Jason Gallian, the captain. After the final game, Pietersen’s equipment was dumped by team-mates, in his absence, over the dressing-room balcony some 20 feet on to the pavilion steps. In his autobiography, Pietersen admits that he “probably said a few things I should not have said”. He threatened to sue for unfair dismissal, even though Nottinghamshire refused to sanction his release with a year on his contract remaining. But Pietersen had bigger fish to fry. That winter, his last before qualifying to play for England, he toiled under the firm, guiding hand of Rod Marsh at the National Academy. Marsh told him to stay put and Newell has always given Pietersen credit for knuckling down and helping the county to win the second division of the County Championship in 2004.

The brighter lights of Shane Warne’s Hampshire beckoned. There, too, his relationship has been chequered. Hampshire have been disappointed with the infrequency of his appearances and have questioned his commitment. In 2007, he wanted to turn up on the morning of the Friends Provident Trophy final rather than join the squad the day before. He is not the close friend of Warne that he was in their early months together.

Michael Vaughan described Pietersen as a genius after that innings at the Oval. There are qualities in his batting that make him unique. He has the potential to be an all-time great and time to break all manner of records. But no list of adjectives will be complete without the f-word: flawed.