South African-born Kevin Pietersen will not be the last cricketer to leave his homeland and commit to playing in and for England, predicts Omar Henry, South Africa's former chairman of selectors.
Henry, who arrives in town today on his way to China for next weekend's Shanghai Sixes, says Pietersen is just continuing in the long line of players who have left South Africa and made a name for themselves in England.
'And he won't be the last either,' laughs Henry.
Pietersen, who made his test debut for England during the Ashes series, left South Africa a few seasons ago fed up with the racial quota system that he felt was being applied to selection policies - Henry was then part of the transformation policy - for the Proteas test team. But Henry (pictured), who knows more than most how it feels to be shunned by the racist policies during the apartheid era, shrugs when asked why Pietersen flew the coop. 'Maybe it was politics that drove him out. I don't know. But I think money was also a reason. Cricket is a professional sport and can you blame somebody if he leaves to play in a country where the money is? The bottom line is that he wanted a job and he made a decision to leave South Africa.
'He won't be the last one to do this either. Historically we have had players leaving South Africa and going to England. Tony Greig is the most famous as he captained England, and before that we had Basil D'Oliveira who was the first. Then there was Allan Lamb. Pietersen is following the same line and there will be others after him,' warned Henry.
Life began, in a way, for Henry when he was 40. It was 1992 and South Africa had been re-admitted into world cricket, and Henry was the first non-white to play for the country which was making tentative steps in the post-apartheid era.
