article: Brash? Arrogant? Ostentatious, perhaps? Hold on a minute, did someone say introverted? "I've got this reputation of being confident, yet I go and do all these psychology tests and I'm an introvert," Pietersen tells his former team-mate Andrew Flintoff in an interview to be aired on BBC Radio 5 live on Tuesday at 20:30 BST. Source: ESPN Cricinfo "I'm very much an introverted person. I like my own company, my own family. I don't really go out much. "I think the confidence has grown from what I've achieved on the cricket field but I'm not as confident as anybody thinks." The disarming revelation is one of many in Pietersen's fascinating chat with Flintoff, a player with whom he occasionally clashed during the years they shared an England dressing room. In it, Pietersen talks about growing up in South Africa unaware of what the Ashes were, his see-saw relationship with Shane Warne, his ill-fated spell as captain and his regret over the silly shots that have left him looking "a complete mug" at times. He opens up about England captains past and present, relives the anguish of injuries and loss of form and reaffirms his ambition to clock up 10,000 Test runs. Like many top sportsmen, Pietersen is public property, someone we think we know much better than we actually do. This interview goes behind the bling and the bravado to reveal an insecurity over his image, a recognition of his faults, a light-heartedness - he calls Flintoff "chubby" at one point - and perhaps less surprisingly, an absolute obsession with his performance on the field of play. After leaving South Africa in protest against the racial quota system - which insisted on a certain number of non-white players in every team - and qualifying to play for England through the Kolpak rule, Pietersen announced himself with three one-day centuries against the country of his birth in early 2005. He went on to play a decisive role in England's historic Ashes victory over Australia later that year, making back-to-back fifties on his Test debut at Lord's and sealing the series with a breathtaking 158 at The Oval. The sheer audacity with which Pietersen took on the team that had dominated the game for more than a decade was jaw-dropping, but as he reveals to Flintoff, his close relationship with Australian talisman Warne - they were team-mates at Hampshire - was one of the major reasons why he settled so quickly into Ashes cricket. Media playback is not supported on this device "Having the great Shane Warne as my mate, walking onto the field and not having him hammer me from first slip, but just laugh and have a joke helped a lot," says Pietersen. "I think I could have been fearful playing Australia but because this huge figure was a mate of mine, it calmed things down." There was nothing calm about the celebrations that followed England's Ashes win as the players famously partied the night away before arriving at a Downing Street reception the next morning somewhat the worse for wear. One
summary: What adjective would you use to describe England batsman Kevin Pietersen?