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

Kevin Pietersen is a contradiction. A flamboyant batsman with a pop star for a wife and Hollywood actors among his friends, Pietersen was a celebrity cricket captain in the mould of Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and Wally Hammond.

Yet few tales of bad behaviour have emerged about Pietersen, not even unsubstantiated rumour. He drinks little, trains hard and is a faithful husband. No drunken escapades on a pedalo for him, no brawling in public or womanising.

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• Video: Pietersen returns to England

• Video: Pietersen's press conference

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BACKGROUND

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• Pietersen's England career

As an athlete, Pietersen, 28, does things that even team-mates cannot. Coaches may despair at pupils copying Pietersen's unorthodox batting strokes, such as the switch-hit sweep or the so-called flamingo shot (a one-legged on-drive), but if he gets children interested in cricket that is a good thing.

He has had all the celebrity trappings: earrings, tattoos and some outlandish haircuts, most notably the “dead skunk” look in 2005. He dated Natalie Pinkham, a TV presenter, then Caprice, a model, before meeting Jessica Taylor, a singer with Liberty X and a competitor on the forthcoming ITV series Dancing on Ice, whom he married a year ago.

Pietersen is, like David Beckham, an excellent role model and sponsors know it. The Pietersen brand, aided by his central role in England's winning the 2005 Ashes, has earned him a lot of money. He will become even more wealthy when he joins the Indian Premier League this spring for a sum in the region of $1 million.

He has become a very English hero despite never quite hiding his South African roots. The Pietermaritzburg accent remains, which sounds disconcerting when Pietersen uses 1950s English idioms such as “talking on the blower” and “chit-chat”. Last June he was asked why fans sent him pictures of themselves naked and replied: “Look it's your nation, not mine.” Two months later he was made England captain and few blinked.

If he has a failing it is believing his own press. The third of four brothers, Pietersen had a tough upbringing in South Africa. Winning against his siblings made him hungry to beat the world. As he started making large scores, first for Natal then, taking advantage of his mother's English passport, in county cricket and for England, his self-opinion grew.

South African cricketers call him The Ego. Australians are more blunt, calling him Figjam, which stands for “F*** I'm Good, Just Ask Me”. The cockiness proved his undoing.

According to a joke that did the rounds last summer, Pietersen and his wife were cuddling on their wedding night when suddenly she recoiled, saying: “My God, your feet are so cold.” To which Pietersen replied: “Darling, in bed you can call me Kevin.”

It was because he expected some to treat him as a god that Pietersen is no longer captain of England.