Brendon McCullum admits he is ‘super excited’ to have Kevin Pietersen on his England white-ball cricket coaching team, saying his addition has got the squad ‘buzzing.‘
Former England batter Pietersen was added to the coaching line-up by McCullum ahead of the T20I series with Sri Lanka, with the 46-year-old taking the role of a specialist mentor.
White-ball captain Harry Brook and his troops are starting to build preparations for the 2027 World Cup – and McCullum admits the players are ‘buzzing’ to have Pietersen’s input.
The former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman, who was relieved of his red-ball coaching duties after a series defeat to the Kiwis earlier this summer, feels Pietersen’s ‘pedigree’ will prove to be vital.
Incredible pedigree
Pietersen scored almost 14,000 runs across all three formats of international cricket between 2004 and 2014.
And McCullum told Sky Sports: “The beauty of Kev coming in is that he has an incredible pedigree as a player – a lot of our players grew up watching and idolising him when he was in his pomp as a player.
“He is one of those guys where he has so much in his life so for him to give up those things to focus on trying to help us to get to the level we want and challenge for World Cups, we are incredibly lucky.
“Kev was an unbelievable player and a winner. He left no stone unturned with his preparation.
“He believed in himself in those big moments and more often than not performed in those moments.”
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Fiercely competitive
“He is a big personality and fiercely competitive,” added McCullum.
“They are attributes we would love to rub off onto our players. It is great to be able to add a resource like that and I only see an upside.
“He has brought a ton of energy to the set-up within the last 24 hours.
“His work ethic is second to none and when he is in on something, he is all in.
“I am super excited to have him, he is excited and the boys are buzzing.”
Privately challenged
McCullum is not looking for a yes man – and knows Pietersen has strong opinions on the game and how it should be played.
The England coach added: “When I rang him and asked whether he would be interested in coming and working with England, I think he thought I was joking for a start!
“He mentioned that he has been quite critical of us in the past and I said, ‘I have no problem with that, mate.’
“There are parts I might agree with and parts I might not agree with and that’s fine.
“The way he looks at the game is quite different to a lot of people and if someone can see something different and point that out to help you to become better, then I see that as no bad thing.
“Kev will do that and I have encouraged him to do that.
“I don’t want him to be buried in one specific skillset – I want him to look across the set-up and challenge me privately on ways we can improve and do things differently.”
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Michael Davey 
SportJustSport writers