Kevin Pietersen and the infographic tattoo ....

Watching the game of Cricket is made more interesting by the statistics, commentary,  analysis, graphs, visuals, and more.  Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.

Kevin Peter Pietersen,  was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa, made his first-class debut for Natal in 1997 before moving to England, after voicing his displeasure at the racial quota system in place in South Africa. His English mother made him eligible to play for England and after serving a qualifying period of four years playing at county level, he was called up almost immediately into the national side. He made his international debut in the One Day International match againstZimbabwe in 2004 ~ scored 8181 test runs in 104 tests with 23 centuries and 444o one day runs in 136 matches.  He also took 10 Test wickets and 7 ODI wickets.  ~ the interesting character has played his last International innings, though has been trying hard to push a comeback.  There is a strong feeling that he mouthed his way out of reckoning.   At that time, British Press including Telegraph  stated that  KP’s anti-Andy Flower rant was the final nail in his England career… it is stated that the strong batsman misjudged the mood of a team meeting and heavily criticised the coach who later intervened during a disagreement with the captain over practice.

The talented Kevin is  currently playing cricket for Melbourne Stars in Australia ~ this post is not on whether he should be recalled or whether he might ever play for England again but on a huge new tattoo on his body.  Recently, he stated that Eoin Morgan would like to have him on the playing side.  However, Eoin Morgan attempted to finally bring to an end to the almost daily saga of Kevin Pietersen keeping his name in the England frame by insisting that he has 'the best group of players' with him in Australia.

England's new one-day captain again found himself answering questions about the exiled star - who will not go away - when he arrived in Sydney for Friday's resumption of hostilities with the old enemy. And Morgan's side suffered problems in making the journey from Canberra when their flight was cancelled and then when they experienced turbulence on the replacement before the England captain was given a bumpy ride by the Australian press.

Pietersen claimed that Morgan wanted him back in the England side in an excruciating 'interview' with Ricky Ponting during a Big Bash game when the great former Australian captain took his opportunity to stir the English pot. But Morgan reiterated there was no way back for Pietersen, as he did in Canberra, when he spoke at the Sydney Cricket Ground ahead of the first one-day international of a tri-series that also involves India. The Australians have loved keeping the issue in the spotlight during their Twenty20 competition to crank up the pressure on England as they return to the scene of the worst tour in their history a year ago. The bottom line is that too many bridges have been burnt with England having long since decided to move on without a player who became more trouble than he is worth ~ and two half-centuries in an Australian Twenty20 competition does not change that.

Now getting back to that tattoo – it is a map of the world, with red stars on selected locations. The stars indicate everywhere Pietersen has scored an international 100.  In a picture posted on his Instagram site, the South African-born batsman showed off his new ink, stretching from his chest around to his back. The map, which Pietersen insists is not the wrong way around - 'just the reflection!' - has red stars on certain places around the globe.  Mailonline reports that each mark represents a place that Pietersen has scored an international century for England - be it Test or ODI - including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Pakistan and Australia. He has scored 32 international centuries, 23 of those in Test matches for England over a career spanning nearly nine years.  There are seven countries in which Pietersen has scored a Test century - England, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Pakistan, India and the West Indies - while South Africa and the UAE are added to his tattoo with ODI hundreds.

Before it was clear what the stars indicated, an initial theory was that they marked locations in which Pietersen has played cricket; a missing star in the Melbourne area dispelled that particular idea. Indeed, Pietersen is currently plying his trade in southern Australia, in the Big Bash League for Melbourne Stars. There is a star in Adelaide, the location of Pietersen's England centuries in 2006 and 2010, but not in the far south of Melbourne.  Pietersen himself fuelled the speculation on Thursday morning when he tweeted: 'Work the stars out yourself on my last Instagram post!'

In his autobiography, the 34-year-old was honest in his assessment of his tattoos, admitting that he 'overplayed his Englishness' in getting Three Lions inked on his shoulder. There have been many sportspersons with different tattoos, yet this map seems to be lot different.   Charles Joseph Minard was a French civil engineer recognized for his significant contribution in the field of information graphics in civil engineering and statistics. Minard was among other things noted for his representation of numerical data on geographic maps.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

16^th Jan 2015.