Cricketer KEVIN PIETERSEN is expected to return to the England team for the four-Test tour of India in November, according to Andy Wilson of the London GUARDIAN. Pietersen will spend much of the next month flying back-and-forth from the Champions League Twenty20 competition in South Africa to hold "clear-the-air meetings" with the other players and the management as part of a "reintegration process." Pietersen was welcomed back into the England fold at a press conference in a Colombo hotel Wednesday. Pietersen and England and Wales Cricket Board Chair GILES CLARKE issued similar statements to confirm that they have begun a "process for reintegrated" with a two-hour meeting, which will now be followed by a series of further meetings between Pietersen and other key figures in the England set-up. Team Dir ANDY FLOWER will "manage that process," and decide whether and when Pietersen is "ready for consideration" by the national selector GEOFF MILLER -- which will also trigger a new 12-month contract to run until next October (GUARDIAN, 10/3). The BBC reported that Pietersen dropped in August for sending "provocative" text messages to opposing players during the Test series against South Africa. Pietersen, who now has a central contract which could be extended until next September, apologised to former captain ANDREW STRAUSS, and the ECB "accepts the texts were not derogatory about him" (BBC, 10/3).
