Two letters have split English cricket, fans and pundits right down the middle this week.

KP.

Kevin Pietersen, a man seemingly so toxic to team spirit that the ECB sacked him after a series in which he had been England’s best-performed batsman.

In the lead-up to the publication of his book – KP – the extracts had been targeted like short ones from Curtly Ambrose.

• Farewell Kevin Pietersen: a maverick and a goose 
• Pietersen lashes out at former teammates

Soundbites like “parody Twitter account” (whereby KP was left “broken” by tweets believed to have been orchestrated by his own teammates), “bowler’s cabal” (whereby KP alleged England’s bowlers bullied and intimidated players for dropping catches) and “textgate” (whereby KP said he regretted texting South African players criticising his own captain) were everywhere.

World at his feet: Pietersen after scoring a ton in the 2005 Ashes series. Photo: Getty

Pietersen alleged the England dressing room was run by a clique of senior players (Matt Prior, James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad), with anyone outside that group being fair game for micky-taking.

Swann dismissed Pietersen’s book as a work of fiction, while paceman Chris Tremlett was more supportive, saying people could now make an “informed” judgement on what went on.

The ECB couldn’t sit back and block, they had to get on the front foot.

A five-page ‘dossier’ appeared on Cricinfo, detailing an impressive array of indiscretions committed while on the last Ashes tour.

These included:

– Staying out late drinking in Adelaide with two young teammates, ignoring explicit instructions from coach Andy Flower.

– Allegedly telling a team physiotherapist that he would do anything to go home should England lose the third Test In Perth. Pietersen supposedly told the physio that if England went 3-0 down, his knee was “going to be really playing up”.

– Laughing when players urged him to get media personality Piers Morgan to stop criticising the team on Twitter, telling them they needed to get thicker skins.

– Telling Flower in a private meeting that captain Alastair Cook was weak, tactically inept and that his latest effort to galvanise the team was “pathetic”.

Now that’s what we call divisive.

Even the media aren’t sure what to make of it all.

Piers Morgan (who showed how clever he is when he opted to face a Brett Lee barrage in the MCG nets) has taken on the role of Pietersen’s personal Twitter prince with fanatical zeal.

Players who stuck out that Ashes tour can comment re KP. Those like @Swannyg66 who ran home when things got tough should shut it.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 7, 2014

Jonathan Agnew is in the anti-Pietersen camp on the whole, but demonstrated his ability to think critically about the situation when he backed the batsman’s take on the nastiness of England’s bowlers to men who dropped catches.

I have mentioned on the radio the hostility of England’s bowlers to fielders who make a mistake. — Jonathan Agnew (@Aggerscricket) October 6, 2014

Agnew has since deleted his Twitter account after being abused for his views.

Michael Vaughan is sympathetic to Pietersen’s cause and outlined his own philosophy for handling the sensitive star.

(“I have said for a long time that Kevin is one of the easiest players that I managed. It is important to speak honestly to him – to give him direction, freedom, and confidence to express his talents. If you did that, I felt he was always behind you.”)

He also, eloquently, referred to the alleged ECB dossier as “bollocks”.

Mike Atherton, another former England skipper and now one of the more articulate voices chronicling the game, described the book as a “bitter settling of scores”.

At the end of the day, Pietersen has exactly what he wanted – the entire world is talking about him, and his book will no doubt rocket straight to the top of the bestseller’s list.

That’s Pietersen through and through – a master of self-promotion, just another planet that thinks he’s the sun.