New Delhi: Former captain of the England cricket team, Kevin Pietersen, praised India Tuesday after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced that a consignment of ‘Made-in-India’ vaccines has arrived in Johannesburg.
Pietersen was born in South Africa‘s Natal Province in 1980 to an English mother and a South African father.
“Indian generosity and kindness grows more and more every single day. The beloved country!” tweeted the former cricketer.
Indian generosity and kindness grows more and more every single day.
The beloved country! ??— Kevin Pietersen? (@KP24) February 2, 2021
Under the ‘Vaccine Maitri‘ (vaccine friendship) initiative, India has planned to export shots to neighbouring countries in order to address their shortfall. The initiative began on 20 January and India has so far provided vaccines to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Seychelles, Algeria and Mauritius.
One million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, have been sent to South Africa as part of the ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative. India plans to send another 500,000 doses to the country later this month.
Commercial supply of Covishield have also been sent to Brazil, Morocco and Bangladesh. More supplies are planned to arrive in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The two vaccines approved in India are Serum Institute’s Covishield and Covaxin, manufactured by the Bharat Biotech.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also lauded India’s capacity to produce vaccines as one of the ‘best assets that the world has today’.
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Controversies in his career
Pietersen began his cricketing career by playing for Natal and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, before moving to the UK to play for Nottinghamshire in the 2001 season. In 2004, he was selected to play for England.
Throughout his career, Pietersen faced controversies, including a fallout with two national team coaches. He was also briefly dropped from the England team in 2012 after sending text messages to South African players that were allegedly critical of former England captain Andrew Strauss.
In 2014, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had left the batting legend out of their teams for a one-day tour of the West Indies and the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, officially ending his career in international cricket. It was said that there were doubts about his full support to former captain Alastair Cook at the time.
Pietersen announced his retirement on social media in March 2018.
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