The cricketing world was taken aback last week with the abrupt and unforeseen retirement from limited overs cricket of Kevin Pietersen. Regardless of whom you barrack for, there has never been any doubt of the immense talent KP possesses. On the pitch, he has an aura around him which has drawn in crowds through the gate by the numbers. Considering that he is very much still in the prime of his career in all formats, the news was particularly hard to fathom for many.

When KP burst onto the scene some seven years ago, there was certainly talk amongst the critics that he could become an all-time great player. After having pledged his allegiance to his new country England, his swashbuckling career got a kickstart when he returned to tour his native home of South Africa. Being booed in every game, he took it all in his stride and made about a mockery of the South African bowling attack scoring a mammoth 473 in a seven match series. It took him only 21 innings to reach 1000 ODI runs, a feat only matched by another great in Viv Richards. So dramatic was his rise that he was named the ICC one-day player of the year, just over a year after his debut. He was fast-tracked into the test side and as expected his impact was immense as he played a major role in England’s Ashes victory in 2005.

Over the years, bowlers did start to work him out, and his Bradman-esque average did dip and eventually catch up with him, but he remained a vital cog for England in all three formats. As we look ahead to this year’s T20 World Cup, it is worth remembering that the last edition of the tournament in 2009, could have been renamed the ‘KP show’ –with him taking out the man of the tournament as England finally broke their hoodoo of never having won an ICC limited overs trophy.

So what has transformed now, such that the 32 year old winner will not be there to defend England’s crown this year in Sri Lanka? Pietersen has gone on the record to say he wanted to spend more time with his family, but opinions are divided as to how much more there is behind that anecdote.

Firstly, it has been made clearly evident that Pietersen only wanted to step down from ODI, but that ECB rules stipulate that you cannot retire from ODI and not T20I. While to an outsider it may appear a strange rule, the fact of the matter is that cricketing administrators and patrons of the game still consider ODI a more pure form of the game and hence in order to save its death, they need to continue to invest in it. Pietersen may feel that playing T20I will help to promote his brand as a T20 cavalier to the many available lucrative T20 cricketing leagues, but it is the responsibility of the ECB to ensure they preserve the international game first.

As things stand, T20I are considered a mere embellishment to a one day series, hence the reason the ECB consider the selection for one essential to the other. The reality that there is a T20 World Cup coming up soon, should not be a reason to allow players to pick and chose. If the T20 World Cup was Pietersen’s aspiration, a much more satisfying decision would have been to continue to play ODI and T20I till the World Cup. Whether this was brought to the table, we don’t know.

Pietersen has also just returned from another jam-packed IPL season, one in which he was one of a handful of current English international cricketers representing their franchises. With the amount of money on offer for players to play a short month-long tournament, it is no surprise that more players are shunning international games. With more leagues popping up across the globe, the age of domestic T20 cricket is certainly amongst us.

Pietersen has thus far vowed to continue playing test cricket, but how long he can commit to it, is a real cause for concern. With England preparing for the next Ashes, it is imperative that Pietersen’s dedication to the cause is lucid. Now it is stepping down from limited overs cricket before a World Cup, but it would be an even greater disaster for England if Pietersen decided to step down from test cricket just before the Ashes. Next year's IPL season clashes with England's test series and hence it will provide a gauge as to where his priorities lie.

To be fair on Pietersen, being an international cricketer is not an undemanding job. Add on the ever-increasing cricketing schedule, the wear and tear on cricketers and the travel time for some who are spending more time in planes than on a cricketing pitch. Who would want to be a cricketer, and being away from family for such periods.

Players picking and choosing when to play and which format to play is nothing new. Pietersen is not the first and he certainly will not be the last. T20 cricket is revolutionising the game, both for the better and the worse. It is up to the ICC and its members to ensure the negative impacts are minimised and the positives marketed. KP will be greatly missed from the shorter format games, but let’s hope he steps out in the whites at Trent Bridge for the first test of the 2013 Ashes series.