KP: Story of a Genius | Ep1 | Sky Sports.
Transcript
00:00I don't think there's many better players who've ever played for England.
00:2650% of the time it's fantastic, 50% of the time it's a proud moment.
00:29You just knew something was there, this guy is something different.
00:32I don't think he would deny the fact that he could occasionally be a bit of a d***.
00:36Some of the things he did on the pitch were without peer.
00:39He's the only man I've known who's fell in love with himself at 16, but he's been faithful ever since.
00:45As a batsman he was pure box office and arguably the most talented ever to pull on an England shirt.
00:54What a shot that is, you just cannot coach this.
00:57That really is as good as it gets.
00:59My name's Kevin Peterson and you better believe it.
01:03But while no one doubted his ability as a cricketer, he was often deemed unmanageable
01:08and his career was blighted by fallout and controversy.
01:13I'd just like to take this opportunity to apologise to my teammates.
01:16Do you regret what's happened, Kevin?
01:18It's been hard, it's been horrible, it's been hurtful and disappointing.
01:23So who is the real KP and what really happened in that England dressing room?
01:29You are texting the opposition players or direct messaging him.
01:32Because they're my mates.
01:33What about loyalty, you know?
01:35England, there's an IPL, I want to move on. What about a bit of loyalty?
01:38No, no.
01:39From Moores through to Taylor, Strauss, Pryor, Flower, where does it end?
01:44At some stage you not think, it could be me, Kev.
01:48I'm on a journey to find out the true Kevin Peterson story.
02:03That's it, the arms are aloft.
02:05Ball through extra cover signals Kevin Peterson's first Test 100.
02:11This could yet be the biggest day of his career.
02:15In the 2005 Ashes series,
02:17Kevin Peterson scored his maiden Test century for England.
02:22He would go on to play over 100 Test matches,
02:25scoring almost 14,000 international runs.
02:30I've come to meet him at his lodge in South Africa
02:33to find out how a boy from the small town of Pietermaritzburg
02:37became an England cricketing legend.
02:45How are you, brother?
02:46You've gone back to your roots here.
02:48I know.
02:49Take Africa out of the boy and the boy out of Africa.
02:52I know, I know. Welcome, welcome.
02:54This is my home here.
02:58Kevin, let's go right back to the beginning.
03:00What was it like growing up in Pietermaritzburg all those years ago?
03:03I had an amazing childhood.
03:06It was the African way.
03:08We had the most wonderful family life,
03:11got three brothers.
03:12In the summers, we were playing cricket in the back garden.
03:15In the winters, we were playing rugby against each other.
03:17Would you say your competitive juices came from those early days,
03:20playing sport with your brothers?
03:21Huge, because there were four boys in our family
03:25and I was third in the list.
03:27When you played rugby, full contact, you just carry on.
03:30You got tackled by your older brother, you hammered him.
03:33There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that just went into our games.
03:36I tell you what, some of my cricket games and rugby games
03:39on our front lawn in Pietermaritzburg
03:41were tougher than any international cricket I've played.
03:45Like proper, proper competitive.
03:48Grant, you've known Kevin for a number of years.
03:50What was he like as a school boy?
03:52Just a very determined, hard-nosed individual
03:57who didn't take failure passionate in whatever he did.
04:00Besides cricket, he played rugby at a high level.
04:04Squash, obviously in the family with his dad,
04:08he was a good squash player as well.
04:10We had many a battle, but just a really determined individual
04:14which I think stood him in good stead.
04:20So Kev, was this the journey you used to have to make
04:22most mornings and evenings to school and back?
04:24Yeah, Monday to Friday.
04:25As we left Pietermaritzburg when I was 12 years of age,
04:28we moved to Westville just outside Durban
04:31and this is the road that we used to take.
04:33How long was the journey?
04:34About 50 minutes.
04:35They were longish days.
04:37What's this place here on the right then?
04:39I've got no idea.
04:40Oh, there we go, the Hari Gwala Stadium.
04:42Who was Hari Gwala, Kev?
04:48Drive. Who was Hari Gwala?
04:51No idea.
04:52OK.
04:54Maybe we should ask...
04:55Madam, who's Hari Gwala?
04:59Maritimburg College was renowned for its sports stars.
05:02It produced the likes of John T. Rhodes,
05:04a couple of rugby players, David Miller of late.
05:06Yeah.
05:07Was sport a huge part of your upbringing at that school?
05:10I didn't go there for maths.
05:12What were your sports then?
05:13I played everything, but I was a late developer
05:16and I think that's my story.
05:18I wasn't very good.
05:19I had a little bit of talent, a bold offspin
05:21and I turned out to be a batsman.
05:23So if you've got that hunger, that passion,
05:25that desire for a sport like I had for cricket,
05:28then I do believe that you get half a chance.
05:31You've got to get opportunities, you've got to take opportunities
05:34and you've also got to be lucky along the way.
05:38Choose drive.
05:41This is Goldstones.
05:43The main pitch?
05:44Yeah, this is where the big boys play.
05:46This is the first-team field.
05:47This is hallowed turf.
05:48When you were your first year,
05:50first couple of years at Maritimburg College,
05:52you're not allowed to walk on here.
05:54Was that right?
05:55You have to sprint across this field.
05:57It was a pretty strict environment.
05:59What would happen to you
06:00if you were just caught walking across there?
06:02I was training for the prefects, so at every break time,
06:05if they wanted something, they'd just call you.
06:07Peterson, come here!
06:08You just walk in there and you're going to speak to them.
06:11Stand at attention every time you talk to a prefect.
06:13Go and get me a toaster sandwich.
06:15And you would literally just put foot, get it,
06:18sprint back, then stand back at attention.
06:20Go and get me a pencil.
06:21And they would just hammer you.
06:23You say this was for the big boys.
06:26Yeah.
06:27How many teams would you have, like, of a weekend?
06:29Four or five teams?
06:30I mean, you could go up to a J.
06:32You could have 10, 11, 12 teams.
06:34So it is a massive school.
06:35And is it a successful, or was it a successful when you were here?
06:39Hugely successful.
06:40I never lost a game of rugby my whole sporting career,
06:44my whole schooling career.
06:46We lost a couple of cricket games, but, oh, goodness,
06:49it brings back such amazing memories.
06:52Mike, you're one of KP's first coaches at Maritimburg College.
06:55What was he like as a lad growing up?
06:57Good traditional background.
06:59Tough kid.
07:01Self-belief.
07:03Rough and ready.
07:05A typical South African teenager.
07:07Was he well liked at school?
07:09Was he a popular lad?
07:10Yeah, he wasn't unpopular.
07:13I mean, we all know him as having been a prickly kind of guy,
07:17but certainly a guy who backed himself
07:19and got involved in the holistic part of the school,
07:22playing rugby and cricket.
07:24Last year at that college,
07:26you didn't get into the school first team, did you?
07:28No, I didn't. I only got in in the fourth term of school.
07:30So I started only playing kind of representative cricket
07:33when I was 17½ years of age.
07:35The thing is, it's a cool story
07:37because not everybody's a superstar, Ness.
07:40Not everybody gets that silver spoon and says,
07:43you know what, go and carry on.
07:45And there's a lot of silver spoons that turn out to be throwaways.
07:49And it grew through my childhood in Pietermaritzburg.
07:52I was completely focused.
07:55Having left school,
07:57it wasn't long before Peterson had progressed
08:00into the Natal first-class set-up,
08:02but still mainly as a spinner.
08:04Phil, you were coach here at Natal
08:06when a young Kevin Peterson was trying to make his way.
08:09What was he like as a player back then?
08:11I described him then as a man in a hurry.
08:14From the way he came to nets, buzzing,
08:18and just the way he played his cricket, it was all action.
08:22You knew he was going to be a first-class cricketer,
08:25but you didn't know that he was going to become
08:28as fine a player as he became.
08:30Why is it then that he was batting at No. 9, No. 8
08:34and bowling offspin for the Dolphins,
08:36and yet was such a gun batter or developing into such a gun batter?
08:40I think probably the composition of the Dolphins side at the time.
08:43It was a really talented unit.
08:45We batted kind of all the way down to No. 9, 10.
08:48The likes of Sean Pollock was batting nine.
08:51Lance Kluizner batting at No. 8 or No. 9 as well.
08:53So it was a really strong batting line-up.
08:55From his perspective, quite difficult to force himself in as a batsman.
09:01But it wasn't just the strength in depth of Natal's batting
09:04that was keeping Peterson out of the first team.
09:07Now, just for people who don't know,
09:09tell us what the quota system was exactly in South Africa.
09:12The first decree was that there would be no all-white team, national team.
09:16Then it moved down into the provincial system,
09:19into the domestic system, and it changed.
09:21The quota target, as it is described now, was increased
09:25so that now it's six non-white players,
09:28three of whom must be black African.
09:30But when Kevin Peterson reacted to it, it was just in its infancy.
09:35First time I met Kevin was in 1999
09:38during an England tour match against Natal,
09:41where his offspin somehow claimed four wickets.
09:44He was, however, already thinking about leaving South Africa.
09:50So, Kev, here we are in the away dressing room at Kingsmeade.
09:53Last time we were in here together, you burst through that door
09:56and ordered the England captain to get you a job in England.
09:59Now, why would you do that?
10:01I was desperate to be an international cricketer,
10:03desperate to fulfil the potential
10:05and be the best player that I could possibly be in.
10:08It had happened on numerous occasions
10:10where I got dropped for political reasons
10:13instead of the better man plays.
10:15I thought you meant club cricket.
10:17Honestly, I gave you my brother's number, didn't I,
10:19for Fives and Aronians in the Essex League,
10:21and you sort of looked at me as if to say,
10:23that's not quite what I meant.
10:25County cricket.
10:26You set your ambitions high.
10:28Yeah, because I think I, at that stage,
10:31was starting to realise my potential.
10:33I had the purple passport.
10:35The green mamba wasn't working for me at the time.
10:38And it was a case...
10:39On your mum's side.
10:40Yeah, on mum's side.
10:41Mum's English, dad's South African.
10:43And I knew there was a plan B.
10:45As you first came across Kevin on that 99-2000 tour of South Africa,
10:49what did you make of him as a cricketer?
10:51What I remember about KP initially was that he was an off-spinner.
10:54He batted at, I don't know, 8 or 9 or something for Natal.
10:58I got out to him, I'm fairly certain you got out to him.
11:01And the only other thing I remember is that he badgered you
11:04to try and come as an overseas player to Essex,
11:06and you said to everybody, I don't think he's good enough.
11:09We played against him in South Africa,
11:12and then he was talking to everyone, trying to get a count in England.
11:15I think we all binned him and said, no, mate, you're not good enough.
11:18Batting 10 for Natal and bowling a bit of off-spin.
11:20Sorry, mate, work on your batting.
11:22Straight away you could sense that here was a kid
11:24who wanted to further himself, he wanted to challenge himself,
11:27he wanted to get out of his comfort zone
11:30and make the most of his career,
11:32and that's always a pretty useful sign.
11:34I know your thoughts on the quota system has changed over the years,
11:37but what was your thoughts then?
11:39The principle I didn't like was that if you were good enough,
11:42you should be playing.
11:43If you weren't good enough, you shouldn't be playing.
11:45All I wanted to do was play cricket.
11:47I didn't want to come to a game against Northern Transvaal here in Durban,
11:50do the little bit of a warm-up before the game, guy gets injured,
11:53I'm sitting in the seat in the home dressing room,
11:56and the coach says, you're not playing today.
11:58I'm like, no, no, I am. He said, no, no, you're not playing.
12:00Guy broken his finger, a player of colour comes in,
12:02he plays ahead of me, I miss the game.
12:04And I was playing really good cricket at the time.
12:06What was the game that finally was the last straw for you?
12:09You weren't picked.
12:10I think it was that one, Nassar. I do think it was that one.
12:13I remember sitting downstairs just by myself,
12:15really, really emotional about the whole situation,
12:18just at the bottom of the stairs here.
12:20Just going, I mean, what am I doing here?
12:23And then luckily I had a plan B.
12:27No-one would know back then that Kevin was going to become the player that he is.
12:31Was it really a quota issue,
12:33or just that Kevin didn't look that special a player?
12:36I think it became a quota issue in retrospect
12:38because he wasn't gaining the recognition that he felt that he deserved.
12:42He certainly identified himself as a future great,
12:45but not many of those around him did.
12:48One or two may have done.
12:50I think Sean Pollock has said that he saw something a bit different in him.
12:54You could see the drive, the determination,
12:57the desire to be something special.
13:01Did I think he was going to be the world's number one batsman?
13:05Probably not, but I thought he was going to play international cricket for a good while.
13:09Graham Ford, Sean Pollock, Clive Rice.
13:13Now you're talking three serious cricket brains of South Africa there.
13:17Organised for you to have a meeting with Ali Bakker.
13:20How did that meeting go? You felt he was a little bit rude.
13:23It didn't go great.
13:26Kevin Peterson, who I never met, came to my offices at the Wanderers.
13:31I expressed to him the whole process of merit selection, of quotas,
13:36and I said, look, it won't last indefinitely,
13:39but it's necessary at this point in time in the evolution,
13:43the political evolution of this country.
13:45He didn't concur with me and he went to the UK.
13:49I didn't understand South Africa at the time.
13:51Didn't understand it at all.
13:53I understand it now. Hansard's a great thing,
13:56but what 18-year-old understands politics and understands situations
14:00and describes them perfectly? There's not many of them.
14:02I think at the time you probably thought,
14:04who is this young 18-year-old coming to have a meeting with me?
14:07I mean, who are you sitting in my office for?
14:09I'm dealing on a level which is board level, international level,
14:13sponsorship, image right, broadcast deals,
14:16and I've got a little kid who bowls dodgy offspin.
14:18You don't even have a deuce, right, and you're sitting in my office
14:20and you say, I want an opportunity or there's no opportunities.
14:23Dude, you and your dad round yourselves off and off you go.
14:26And that's what we did.
14:31Having made the move to England, Peterson made an instant impression.
14:35After a brief stint in the Birmingham League,
14:37he was signed by Nottinghamshire,
14:39where he topped the batting averages in three successive seasons.
14:43He was then rewarded with an England call-up.
14:47Peterson made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in 2004
14:52and was then selected for the one-day tour of South Africa,
14:56and he was in for quite a reception.
15:03You get picked to come back here.
15:05Yeah.
15:06As an England player, of all places, what did that feel like to you?
15:09I was worried about the media, I was worried about the commentators,
15:13and I was worried about the fans.
15:15And, I mean, the first game was at the Wanderers.
15:33What set me up for any Ashes battle with Australia
15:36was how loud the Wanderers was when I walked out to bat that Sunday afternoon.
15:41I will never forget it, but it sort of set the tone for,
15:45that is how loud it'll be,
15:47that is how much abuse you could ever take.
15:50On any given day, the Ashes was down here.
15:53He received a really hostile reception, and none of us were surprised.
15:57The fact that he spoke about the quota system
15:59was extremely careless and insensitive.
16:02You know, it's one thing having a dirty backyard,
16:05but if it's your backyard, then you're the one who's allowed to comment on it.
16:08You can't leave and then say your backyard's a mess.
16:11That was different. That was nasty.
16:13I'd never heard a noise like it.
16:15And I've been to many football games.
16:17And when he came out, I always remember he comes up to me and goes,
16:20All right, Skip?
16:21So I just looked at him and thought, how are you going to cope with this, mate?
16:25We're a proud nation.
16:27I think if you take on a South African in the press, in the media,
16:30they're going to come back at you.
16:32But I knew, having seen him develop in England,
16:35I knew that he would come out with the attitude,
16:37I'll show you people exactly what I'm made of.
16:40That's Kevin Peterson.
16:42Take your time here, Graham Smith.
16:44You'll just rearrange the field, keep Kevin Peterson waiting.
16:48Is that the best thing that could have happened to you, though,
16:50the crowd behaving like that, booing you?
16:52Did it spur you on even more, I'll show this lot?
16:54The best thing that happened to me was I got 22 not out.
16:57That's the best thing that happened to me.
17:06Icy stare from Andre Nel.
17:10Smile from Steve Buckner.
17:13Huge groan from the capacity crowd.
17:16I played and missed that first ball that Andre Nel bowled to me.
17:19If I'd nicked that first ball to slip,
17:21who knows how long I would have lasted in international cricket.
17:27That's it. He's got his first one-day hundred.
17:30Then I get a hundred a couple of days later in Bloemfontein.
17:33That was the first sign of Kevin Peterson,
17:35the great Kevin Peterson in my eyes,
17:37because I believe if you describe him, I think he was a genius.
17:40I've seen that Kevin Peterson many times throughout his career,
17:43but to see it in his own back garden,
17:45and I remember standing at Bloemfontein going,
17:47don't kiss the badge, don't kiss the badge.
17:50Oh, he's kissed the badge.
17:53Was that you trying to show everyone that you were English?
17:56I protested too much.
17:58The sporting environment is ego-driven,
18:00driven by arrogance, it's driven by confidence.
18:03To be the best in the world, you need to have some of that.
18:06You need to sometimes have all of that.
18:08And that's the world that I was living in,
18:10trying to put on a show, being brave.
18:12Even when I was in the worst of form,
18:14I got to walk out there, pump my chest up,
18:16I'm Kevin Peterson, I bat fourth for England, I'm going to whack you.
18:19When I walk in there and they boo me, I'm well up for the challenge
18:22and I just want to prove everybody wrong
18:24and prove that the decision I made to come over four or five years ago
18:28is the best decision I've ever made in my life.
18:31That's his 100.
18:33Peterson scored two more centuries in the series
18:36and finished it as England's top run scorer and player of the series.
18:40That is some knock.
18:43It was extraordinary.
18:45I don't think he ever played better
18:47than in that one-day series against South Africa.
18:49I do think with KP that when he had something to prove,
18:52it always brought out the best in him.
18:54South Africa had a good bowling attack.
18:56That's a great shot.
18:58The rest of us are struggling and he just absolutely pulverises it.
19:03He's got the height and he's got the distance on that one.
19:06That's miles over the boundary.
19:08They booed you in Johannesburg,
19:10they turned their back on you in Bloom,
19:13but they stood to you in Pretoria.
19:15He has played magnificently.
19:17A fantastic innings.
19:21That's good to see.
19:22They acknowledge this man is a real talent.
19:26How much was that a moment for you
19:28that you saw the South Africa fans standing for you?
19:30Huge. I mean, that was huge.
19:32He'd kind of won over the whole country.
19:34I didn't think it was possible.
19:36They probably, A, appreciated the way that he played,
19:39which was startling, really, very eye-catching,
19:42and, B, the fact that they'd had given him a fierce reception
19:45and he'd come through it.
19:47He's got the ability to kind of clear out all that noise
19:50and that was so apparent throughout that whole series.
19:53I think the South African public,
19:55inside probably two or three games,
19:57was looking at Kevin Peterson and going,
19:59why did we let him go?
20:00To walk off the field at Centurion and then to have a beer
20:02with all those guys at the end of the tournament
20:05was, I mean, incredibly satisfying.
20:08And that's what set me up for my Test career.
20:12Those text messages, that hurt me.
20:15I just don't see how you can do that personally.
20:18You are texting the opposition players...
20:20Because they're my mates.
20:22I don't think he should have played for England again.