West Indies pacer Kesrick Williams has slammed former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen for the criticism the latter levied on him during the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in December 2019.
“KP likes the spotlight. Nothing wrong with liking the spotlight but it is the way how you get the spotlight. At that point, nobody spoke to KP. He was not important. KP was off the map and KP just wanted a reason to be on the map,” Williams said in a video uploaded on International Cricket Network 360’s YouTube channel.
The IPL 2020 auctions came after Williams made a big impression against India in India. The most famous battle was between him and Virat Kohli in the 1st T20I where King Kohli remained unbeaten on 94 off 50 balls.
Sanjay Manjrekar had then commentated on air and stated that franchises should try and bag him in their team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but Pietersen had replied that he is simply ‘not good enough’ and ‘has nothing special apart from his celebration’.
“Okay here we go – Kohli and Kesrick saga. I can’t rap Kohli because Kohli is the big man. Let me just go after this guy who isn’t as big as Kohli. Who just started playing, who just started making a name for himself,” Williams said.
“Let me hit on Kesrick, let me see if he replies. Then we start something on Twitter, and then I get back into spotlight because right now Kesrick is in the spotlight, because he has something going on with India captain. I am going to jump on that’. That’s what KP did.”
Williams then replied with a thumbs up and stated that he respects KP for what he did during his career.
“When he did it, I didn’t say much. If I see KP right now, I would say ‘Hi legend, pleasure to meet you, man. I won’t fake it, I would mean it,” he further said.