Decades, diamonds and dollars: The reign of Elizabeth II by the numbers

Relive the momentous events in the 60-year reign of Britain's 63rd monarch, from the Queen's coronation and her tribute on the death of Princess Diana, to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.


60 years, four months -- The length of Queen Elizabeth II's reign as of June 6, 2012, making her the second-longest reigning monarch.
63 years, seven months, two days -- The length of the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901.


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Jewels
2,868 -- The number of diamonds in the Imperial State Crown that the queen wears at the state opening of Parliament.
4.9 lbs -- The weight of the St. Edward's Crown worn by Elizabeth at her coronation in 1953. (Photos: Monarchs' diamonds, rubies and sapphires)
Money
£32.1 million -- Amount the British government provides Elizabeth and Prince Philip annually (about $50 million U.S.)
$500 million -- The queen's approximate net worth.
$4.2 billion -- Net worth of British entrepreneur Richard Branson.
1 -- Number of ATMs in Buckingham Palace.
Travel
261 -- The number of official overseas visits Elizabeth has made as of January 1, 2012.
116 -- The number of different countries she has visited during her 60 years as queen.
5 -- The number of times the queen has made a state visit to the United States; the first was in 1957 and the most recent in 2010.
Prime ministers and presidents
12 -- Number of prime ministers who have served during Elizabeth's reign, from Winston Churchill to David Cameron.
2 -- Number of prime ministers born during her reign (Tony Blair in 1953 and David Cameron in 1966).
12 -- Number of U.S. presidents in office since Elizabeth ascended to the throne, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.
1 -- Number of U.S. presidents born during Elizabeth's reign (Barack Obama in 1961).
1 -- Number of sitting U.S. presidents with whom the queen did not meet (Lyndon B. Johnson)
Photos: All the queen's presidents, from Truman to Obama

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US recovery stalls as unemployment rate rises amid dismal job growth

The economy added only 69,000 jobs in May—only about half of what is needed to keep up with natural population growth. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent.


In the weakest recovery since the Great Depression, nearly the entire reduction in unemployment since October 2009 has been accomplished through a significant drop in the percentage of adults working or looking for work. Some of these folks returned to the labor market in May; consequently, unemployment ticked up a tenth of a percentage point.


Growth slowed to 1.9 percent in the first quarter from 3 percent the previous period, and was largely sustained by consumers taking on more car and student loans, business investments in equipment and software, and some inventory build. The housing market is improving and that should lift second quarter residential construction a bit but overall, the economy and jobs growth should remain too slower to genuinely dent unemployment.
A broader measure of unemployment, the U6, rose to 14.8% in May from 14.5% in April. The U6 takes into account job seekers as well as those working part-time who want to work full-time jobs.


The White House moved swiftly to dampen the political fallout of the report, which will provide ammunition for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who is attacking President Barack Obama's economic policies ahead of this November's election.


Alan B Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said: "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight. The economy lost jobs for 25 straight months beginning in February 2008, and over 8m jobs were lost as a result of the Great Recession. We are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."


He said the US economy faced "serious headwinds, including the crisis in Europe and a spike in gas prices" but it was important not to read too much into one month's figures.


Betsey Stevenson, professor of business and public policy at Wharton business school, said: "This is a very bad report. It changes where I thought the US economy was."


She said the cuts to April's job figures were particularly worrying, pointing to a slowdown in the US recovery. The number of long-term unemployed rose to 5.4m from 5.1m, another worrying sign of weakness, said Stevenson.


Gus Faucher, senior economist of PNC Financial Services, said he had been shocked by the numbers. "They were much worse than we had expected. There was a big drop in construction [down 28,000 in May] which is worrying, wage growth was weak. It is hard to see anything good in this report," he said.


The news comes after other economic reports have pointed to a slow down in the US recovery. Yesterday the commerce department said the US's gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of economic growth – rose just 1.9% in the first quarter, down from an estimated 2.2% and far slower than the 3% reported in the fourth quarter of last year.


That figure came as the labour department announced that first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments had increased by 10,000 to 383,000 in the week ended 26 May.


Those figures came as the latest monthly survey by ADP Employer Services reported private employers had added 133,000 in May, economists had been predicting 150,000.


The US jobs market is at least recovering. In Europe there were 17.4 million people without jobs in the 17 nations that use the euro in April, an increase of 110,000 since March and 1.8 million higher than a year earlier, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday. The bloc's unemployment rate is 11%.

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Hugh Hefner

Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner, born April 9, 1926 is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.


Hefner was born in Chicago, Illinois, being the elder of two sons born to Grace Caroline (née Swanson; 1895–1997) and Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), both teachers.Hefner's mother was of Swedish descent and his father had German and English ancestry. On his father's side, Hefner is a direct descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He has described his family as "conservative, Midwest, Methodist. He went to Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served as a writer for a military newspaper in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. He later graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a B.A. in psychology with a double minor in creative writing and art in 1949, earning his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in sociology at Northwestern University but dropped out soon after.


Career


Working as a copywriter for Esquire, he left in January 1952 after being denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he mortgaged his furniture, generating a bank loan of $600 (or $800 — he cannot recall which) and raised $8,000 from 45 investors — including $1,000 from his mother ("Not because she believed in the venture," he told E! in 2006, "but because she believed in her son.") — to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The undated first issue, published in December 1953, featured Marilyn Monroe from her 1949 nude calendar shoot and sold over 50,000 copies. (Hefner, who never met Monroe, bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.)
After it was rejected by Esquire magazine in 1955, Hefner agreed to publish in Playboy the Charles Beaumont science fiction short story, "The Crooked Man", about straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. After receiving angry letters to the magazine, Hefner wrote a response to criticism where he said, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too."
On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for selling obscene literature after an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield was released.[citation needed] A jury was unable to reach a verdict.
His former secretary, Bobbie Arnstein, was found dead in a Chicago hotel room after an overdose of drugs in January 1975. Hefner called a press conference to allege that she had been driven to suicide by narcotics agents and federal officers. Hefner further claimed the government was out to get him because of Playboy's philosophy and its advocacy of more liberal drug laws.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and has made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he received a "worst supporting actor" nomination for a Razzie award for his performance in Miss March.
A documentary by Brigitte Berman, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996.
Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes.
In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary, Discovering the It Girl. "Nobody has what Clara had. She defined an era and made her mark on the nation," he stated.


Personal life


Hefner married Northwestern University student Mildred Williams (born March 10, 1926) in 1949. They had two children, Christie (born November 8, 1952) and David (born August 30, 1955). Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she had had an affair while he was away in the Army. He called the admission "the most devastating moment of my life." A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to sleep with other women, out of guilt for her infidelity and in the hopes that it would preserve their marriage. They divorced in 1959.
Hefner remade himself as a bon viveur and man about town, a lifestyle he promoted in his magazine and two TV shows he hosted, Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He admitted to being "'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates" during some of these years.[19] Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Brande Roderick, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh — who filed a $35 million palimony suit against him — were a few of his many lovers. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. He moved from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Hefner had a minor stroke in 1985 at age 59. After re-evaluating his lifestyle, he made several changes. The wild, all-night parties were toned down significantly and in 1988, daughter Christie began to run the Playboy empire. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad. The couple had two sons, Marston Glenn (born April 9, 1990) and Cooper Bradford (born September 4, 1991).The E! True Hollywood Story profile noted that the notorious Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. After he and Conrad separated in 1998, Conrad moved into a house next door to the mansion.
Hefner then began to move an ever-changing coterie of young women into the mansion, even dating up to seven girls at once, among them, Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. The reality television series The Girls Next Door depicted the lives of Madison, Wilkinson and Marquardt at the Playboy Mansion. In October 2008, all three girls made the choice to leave the mansion. Hefner was quick to rebound and soon began dating his new "Number One" girlfriend, Crystal Harris, along with 20-year-old identical twin and models Kristina and Karissa Shannon. The relationship with the twins ended in January 2010. After an 11-year separation, Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad stating irreconcilable differences.Hefner has said that he only remained married to her for the sake of his children, and his youngest child had just turned 18. The divorce was finalized in March 2010.On December 24, 2010, Hefner presented an engagement ring to Crystal Harris, publicly announcing the proposal the following day. Hefner and Harris had planned to marry June 18, 2011. Harris called off the wedding just 5 days before they were due to be wed.


Politics and philanthropy


The Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans.
He has donated and raised money for the Democratic Party. However, he has more recently referred to himself as an Independent due to disillusionment with both the Democratic and Republican Parties.
In 1978, Hefner helped organize fund-raising efforts that led to the restoration of the Hollywood Sign. He hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and personally contributed $27,000 (or 1/9 of the total restoration costs) by purchasing the letter Y in a ceremonial auction.
Hefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called "Censorship in Cinema," and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film.
Both through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributes to charities outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue as well as Generation Rescue, a controversial autism campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy.
On April 26, 2010, Hefner donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to stop the development of the famed vista of the Hollywood Sign.
Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, an endangered species of Marsh rabbit, is named after him in honor of financial support that he provided.

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Hugh Hefner's Former Fiancée Crystal Harris—Is She Living at the Playboy Mansion Again

Hugh Hefner has let his ex-fiancee Crystal Harris move back into the Playboy Mansion, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned!

After being unceremoniously dumped just a week before his wedding by Crystal, who snuck out of the Playboy Mansion and fled into the arms of another man, Hef has forgiven her and welcomed her home with open arms.

"Crystal begged Hef to let her come back," a source exclusively told  RadarOnline.com. "He surprisingly doesn't have any hard feelings against her, so he let her move back into the Mansion.

While E! News has yet to confirm the initial report by RadarOnline that the magazine mogul and his onetime fiancée are actually shacking up again, evidence does seem to be mounting.

Take some of their tweets, for example.

"Home is where the heart is, Harris wrote, later adding, "Happy to be back home at the Playboy Mansion with @hughhefner and our puppy Charlie. I missed all the love and laughs."

And Hefner himself, posted, "Getting back together with Crystal Harris shouldn't be a big surprise, since I have a history of remaining close to former girlfriends."

However, the "getting back together" part might only be referring to the fact that Harris came over to dine and nothing more.


"Shera & my other Mansion girlfriends welcomed Crystal here at dinner on Tuesday night, before playing games together," Hefner tweeted.


Of course, regardless of whether or not the two are living under one roof, Hefner's feelings for his former flame apparently continue to burn.


"He loved Crystal more than he had loved any woman in a very long time, that's why he was willing to marry her when there were so many women before her who he couldn't properly commit to," a source told E! News. "She had a hold on him that he has never been able to shake. And so it's of no surprise to me that he would get close to her again. He can't help himself. He has a deep connection to her.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites. Further in the future Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft are launched from a large aeroplane, giving the spacecraft more initial speed and altitude than if it were launched from the ground.


Overview of the spacecraft flights
It is planned that the spacecraft will be robust and affordable enough to take paying passengers ($200,000 per person with a $20,000 deposit). As of May 2012, there are around 550 ticket-holders in line to fly with Virgin Galactic. Notable passengers that have already submitted their deposit include Stephen Hawking, Tom Hanks, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, Prince Zulf Ali, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie. The craft is projected to be a six passenger, two pilot craft. Its planned trajectory will overlap the Earth’s atmosphere at 70,000 feet (21,000 m), which will make it a sub-orbital journey with a short period of weightlessness. The spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, will be carried to about 16 kilometers or 52000 ft by a carrier aircraft, White Knight II. At that point, when the carrier aircraft reaches its maximum height, the SpaceShipTwo vehicle will separate and continue to over 100 km (the Kármán line, a common definition of where "space" begins). The time from liftoff of the White Knight booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of SpaceShipTwo after the sub-orbital flight will be about 2.5 hours. The sub-orbital flight itself will only be a small fraction of that time. The weightlessness will last approximately 6 minutes. Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these 6 minutes and float around the cabin
In addition to the sub-orbital passenger business, Virgin Galactic will market SpaceShipTwo for sub-orbital space science missions and market WhiteKnightTwo for "small satellite" launch services. They had planned to initiate RFPs for the satellite business in early 2010, however flights had not materialized as of 2012.
[edit]SpaceShipTwo's performance
SpaceShipTwo flies to a height of 110 km, going beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km) and lengthening the experience of weightlessness [for its passengers]. The spacecraft reaches a top speed of 4000 km/h, faster than current fighter jets. It has double the crew (2) and can carry triple the passengers (6) of its predecessor. In honour of the science fiction series Star Trek, the first two ships are named after the fictional starships Enterprise and Voyager. To re-enter the atmosphere SpaceShipTwo folds its wings up, and then returns them to their original position for an unpowered descent flight back onto the runway. The craft has a very limited cross-range capability and until other planned spaceports are built worldwide, it has to land in the area where it started. Further "Spaceports" are planned in Dubai and elsewhere, with the intention that the spaceline will have a world-wide availability and commodity in the future.


Sir Richard Branson unveiled the rocket plane on Monday 7 December 2009. SpaceShipTwo was presented to the world in the Mojave desert, in California. The vehicle underwent testing during the following 18 months before being allowed to take ticketed individuals on short-hop trips just above the atmosphere. Sir Richard Branson, who heads the Virgin Group, intends to run the first flights out of New Mexico before extending operations around the globe. Built from lightweight carbon composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, SS2 is based on the Ansari X PRIZE-winning SpaceShipOne concept - a rocket plane that is lifted initially by a carrier vehicle before blasting skywards. SS1 became the world's first private spaceship with a series of high-altitude flights in 2004.
Its successor, however, is twice as large, measuring 18 m (60 ft) in length. And whereas SpaceShipOne only had a single pilot (and the ballast equivalent of two passengers), SS2 will have a crew of two and room for six passengers. More than 400 individuals are reported to have signed up for a flight as of early 2011. Each is paying $200,000 (£121,000) for the privilege of experiencing approximately six minutes of weightlessness during what will be a two-hour end-to-end flight. Many of those future "astronauts" have attended the VIP unveiling at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson christened the spaceliner Virgin SpaceShip (VSS) Enterprise.
The New Mexico authorities are investing almost $200m (£121m) in a purpose-built facility in Sierra County, New Mexico, Spaceport America. It will have a 3,000m (10,000 ft) runway and a suitably space-age terminal and hangar building designed by Foster and Partners. Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic enterprise will have competitors but he is almost certain to be the first to market, barring any problems arising in the test campaign. SpaceShipTwo's carrier plane is called WhiteKnightTwo. It was finished last year and has already begun its own trials.


The Spaceship Company


The Spaceship Company (TSC) is a new aerospace production company, founded by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Scaled Composites, which is building a fleet of commercial spaceships and launch aircraft with the intention of making widespread space travel a reality. TSC’s initial launch customer is Virgin Galactic, which has contracted to purchase five SpaceShipTwos and two WhiteKnightTwos.To meet Virgin Galactic’s requirements, TSC has contracted Scaled Composites to develop and build prototypes of WK2 and SS2, of which TSC started full-scale production in 2008.

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Sport Andy Murray French Open 2012: Andy Murray told to pull out over back injury

Having locked up completely in the first set, to the point where he was virtually walking around the court, he gradually began to loosen up until his opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, was the one feeling the pain.
Murray came into this tournament with chronic back trouble, which had forced him to pull out of the Madrid Masters and restricted his movement during the following event in Rome. But his latest attack was far more acute. The problem peaked in the fourth game, when he was unable even to bend in his service action, and could only pat the ball over the net like a pensioner.
"My back went into spasm, basically," Murray said after the match. "It was sore when I got up, sore when I practiced. I couldn't put any weight on my left leg, it's something that happens sometimes."
Asked whether he had considered pulling out of the tournament, he replied: "The guys were telling me to stop. We thought about it, when we were warming up we considered it. But at the end of the second set he was obviously getting a bit nervous. I thought, 'Let's give it a go, let's chase a few more balls'."
When the trainer came on the court, with the score at 5-0 to Nieminen, it appeared that a retirement was inevitable. But Murray has an enviable record of completing his matches on the ATP Tour. He has only once pulled out of a match, when he snapped a wrist tendon against Filippo Volandri in Hamburg. He carried on stubbornly, limping around the court and aiming for clean winners in an attempt to shorten the points. And then, miraculously, his condition started to improve.


Within moments of the opening match on Court Philippe Chatrier, Murray was two games down and clutching his back in agony. Ivan Lendl looked down from the stands, chin on palm, convinced his man was about to quit. He did not. Three courtside treatments got him through the set that Nieminen took 6-1 but few gave Murray a prayer of carrying on.


He was forced to power down his serve to 114kph (70mph) until the muscles settled but rarely got above 170kph (105mph) in the second set. A grunt and a grimace accompanied every twist of his service action as the ball dollied over the net.


Within an hour Murray, loosened but still not able to crank up his serve into a threatening weapon, was stroking the ball to all parts as Nieminen disintegrated in the face of Murray's extraordinary will.


He might not have pulled off this escape without Nieminen's spectacular collapse – he hit 51 unforced errors and five double faults – but at the end his own tennis was unrecognisable from the hobbling effort of the first set.


His dilemma is the nature of his injury. It lurks in his lower back, where every swivel in the service action applies enormous pressure. It has been with him since before the Australian Open, perhaps longer.


He bridled earlier this week when it was suggested he was disguising the seriousness of the injury, declaring he would not play in this match unless he was fully fit. He is still struggling and his pledge to rest completely when the season is over suggests he is prepared to play through the pain. If he does that he risks collapse at any moment in any match.


As for Nieminen, he will have felt even worse at the end than Murray did at the start, having caved in mentally when a routine win over a wounded and highly rated foe was his for the taking.


"He got a bit nervous in the second set," Murray said of his bewildered opponent. "It's not easy playing someone that's struggling. It was tough for him.

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Kevin Pietersen

 Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE, born 27 June 1980 is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England, Surrey and the Delhi Daredevils. He was captain of the England Test and One Day International teams from 4 August 2008 to 7 January 2009 but resigned after just three Tests and nine One Day Internationals, following a dispute with England coach Peter Moores, who was sacked the same day. On 31 May 2012, Pietersen retired from all forms of international limited-overs cricket.
Pietersen was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa. He made his first-class debut for Natal in 1997 before moving to England after voicing his displeasure at the racial quota system in place in South Africa. His English mother gave Pietersen eligibility to play for England, and after serving a qualifying period of four years playing at county level, he was called up almost immediately into the national side. He made his international debut in the One Day International match against Zimbabwe in 2004, and his Test match debut in the 2005 Ashes series against Australia the following year. The England team's subsequent reliance on Pietersen since his debut resulted in only a single first-class appearance for Hampshire between 2005 and 2010. On 17 June 2010, Pietersen announced his wish to leave Hampshire . He subsequently joined Surrey on loan for the remainder of the 2010 English county cricket season after being dropped by England due to a poor run of form, before joining the club permanently from the 2011 season onwards.
Pietersen became the fastest batsman to reach both 1,000 and 2,000 runs in One Day International cricket, and the quickest in terms of time to 5,000 Test runs. He has the highest average of any England player to have played more than 20 innings of one-day cricket. He has the second-highest run total from his first 25 Tests, behind only the Australian Donald Bradman, and was the fastest player, in terms of days, to reach 4,000 Test runs.He became only the third English batsman to top the ICC One Day International rankings, doing so in March 2007.[18] In July 2008, after a century against South Africa, The Times called him "the most complete batsman in cricket". In 2012 The Guardian called him "England's greatest modern batsman".


In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, England started in Group C with a game against New Zealand in which KP made 60 before holing out. He made another 50 against Kenya but disappointedly made just 5 against Canada as England sealed qualification. He made 48 in the unconvincing win against Ireland. Pietersen made 58 against Sri Lanka before being caught and bowled by Murali. England lost that game by 2 runs before losing the next game against Australia by 7 wickets. Pietersen crafted 104 runs off 122 balls against Australia. It was the first World Cup century by an Englishman since 1996, and the first ever against Australia. His efforts in the World Cup helped him achieve the status of International Cricket Council number-one ranked batsman in the world for ODIs. He then failed making 10 against Bangladesh and 3 against South Africa. England lost to South Africa meaning that England did not reach the semi-finals. In England's final match of the World Cup against the West Indies, Pietersen made 100 from 91 balls, and effected the run-out of retiring captain Brian Lara. This century took him past 2,000 ODI runs, in doing so equalling the record 51 matches set by Zaheer Abbas. He finished the tournament with 444 runs, at an average of 55.5, and was described as shining in the England team "like a 100 watt bulb in a room full of candles".


West Indies in England

In the first test of the series he was dismissed for 26 again chasing a wide one when looking set also after 4 centuries were scored by England batsmen in the innings at Lord's,he then scored a hundred in the second innings when England were looking to accelerate. Pietersen posted his highest score of 226 in the second Test at Headingley (it was scored in 262 balls, with 24 fours and 2 sixes), surpassing his previous best of 158 which he had achieved three times. With this score, Pietersen moved ahead of Everton Weekes and Viv Richards to be the batsman with the second-highest run-total out of his first 25 Tests (behind Don Bradman). It is also the highest Test score for England since Graham Gooch scored 333 against India in 1990. This innings subjected the West Indies to an innings and 283 runs defeat, their largest against any team. Pietersen, the Man of the Match, said, "I believe the recipe for success is hard work. I've been criticised for throwing my wicket away, and I tried to make it count here".
In the third Test at Old Trafford, he carried on his bad run at the ground being bounced out twice for 9 and 68. In the second innings, Pietersen lost his wicket in a bizarre dismissal when West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo delivered a bouncer which knocked Pietersen's helmet off his head and onto his stumps. He is only the fourth batsman in Test cricket to be dismissed "hit wicket" as a result of headgear falling onto the stumps. This score took him past the 8,500 first-class runs mark, and 2,500 runs in Test cricket. In the final match of the series, he registered his third duck of his Test career in the first innings and 28 in the second innings as England won the series 3–0.
In contrast, Pietersen's batting was poor in the following single innings matches; he scored a total of 77 runs in five matches (two Twenty20 and three ODI), recording a second-ball duck in the final ODI. He subsequently fell to second in the official One Day International batting rankings, behind Ricky Ponting. Pietersen himself commented that his lack of form was a result of "fatigue", and reiterated his calls for a less "hectic" match schedule.


India tour and Twenty20 Championship

Pietersen played in the first Test against India and in the first innings, he made 37 but not without controversy. He edged the ball behind of Zaheer Khan to Dhoni. He walked, but after seeing replays on the screen, he walked back to the middle and the decision was overturned. Ironically, he was out shortly afterwards caught Dhoni, bowled Khan. In the second innings he was top scorer with a knock of 134 to set up a potential England victory. Pietersen described this as his best century, in very testing conditions. In the second test, he was twice lbw to RP Singh for 13 and 19 in a defeat which subsequently cost them the series. After making 41 in the first innings, Pietersen scored his 10th Test century in the third and final Test at the Oval, helping England to draw the game with 101. In the one-day series that followed, he struggled at the start with a top score of 33 not out in the first five matches of the series. He scored two half-centuries in the final matches including 71 not out in the final match at Lord's, hitting the winning runs to give England the series.
Pietersen was also picked for and played in the Twenty20 Championship in South Africa. In England's first game against Zimbabwe on 13 September, Pietersen hit 79 runs off 37 balls, his highest Twenty20 score, including seven fours and four sixes (one of them being another switch-hit sweep for six) in an English total of 188–9. England won the match by 50 runs; however, this was to be Pietersen's largest contribution in the competition. He scored another 99 runs over four more matches, ending the series with an average of 35.60. He also scored the most England fours (17) and jointly held the record for the most England sixes (6) with Owais Shah. He also held the highest strike rate of any England batsman.


Career in 2011
Pietersen batting during his innings of 72 against Sri Lanka at Lord's
Pietersen was part of England's 15-man squad for the 2011 World Cup hosted by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka between February and March. In the warm-up matches he was asked to open the batting in anticipation that he would assume the position for the whole tournament. He had opened the batting just six times in one-day games and never for England, although had done so for England A in 2004. Pietersen returned home early due to injury. A hernia required immediate surgery and the recovery time of around six weeks meant he would miss the rest of the tournament and potentially the IPL. Eoin Morgan took Pietersen's place in the squad. Pietersen earned some criticism after being sighted at a nightclub in London while injured, however he dismissed the criticism as unwarranted.
He returned from injury for the home series against Sri Lanka in May 2011. Pietersen was also picked to play against India in July 2011, and scored 202 not out at Lord's in the 1st Test. During the innings, Pietersen passed 6,000 runs in Tests. The feat took exactly six years, which is the fastest in terms of time taken, and 128 innings. In the fourth Test he scored 175 runs and shared a partnership of 350 runs with Ian Bell. Pietersen was rested for the ODI series against that followed the Tests.


Career in 2012
Pietersen played a pivotal role in England's tour of Sri Lanka. By scoring a century in the second of two Tests, not only did he move to 20 centuries for England, but he levelled the series at 1-1, ensuring England retain their No.1 Test Ranking status. On April 10th, Pietersen started his first match in the 2012 Indian Premier League for new team, the Delhi Daredevils. In May 2012, Pietersen was fined for a twitter outburst against Ex-England opener, Nick Knight.
On 31 May 2012, he announced his retirement from all forms of limited-overs international cricket. Remaining available for Test cricket only, Pietersen said that "with the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the World Cup in 2015. This announcement came on the back of his 80 against the West Indies at Trent Bridge as England took an unassailable 2–0 lead in the three Test series.


Achievements

Pietersen gained several awards for his performances in the 2005 season. He was named both the ICC ODI Player of the Year and Emerging Player of the Year in 2005, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year (alongside team mates Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard) for his role in the successful Ashes series against Australia. Along with the rest of the England team, he was decorated in the 2006 New Year Honours list, being awarded the MBE for his role in the successful Ashes series. He also played for the ICC World XI in the 2005 ICC Super Series against Australia.

Test match performance
Records:
Second-highest run-total from his first 25 Tests (behind Sir Don Bradman).
Fourth Englishman to make the top score in both innings of debut Test.
One of only twenty-five players to have a peak ICC batting rating over 900.
Achieved 5,000 test runs in the fastest time, reaching this feat in 4 years and 243 days.

Kevin Pietersen retires from ODIs to clear the path for 'new generation'

England batsman Kevin Pietersen has announced his shock retirement from one-day and Twenty20 internationals.

The 31-year-old has played 127 ODIs and 36 T20Is and was a first-choice player in both formats.

But he will now continue his England career as a Test specialist only following discussions with the England and Wales Cricket Board earlier this month.

Pietersen said: "After a great deal of thought and deliberation, I am today announcing my retirement from international one-day cricket.

"With the intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body, approaching 32, I think it is the right time to step aside and let the next generation of players come through to gain experience for the ICC World Cup in 2015."

Pietersen, who was man of the tournament when England won the World Twenty20 in the West Indies in 2010, was willing to help defend the trophy in Sri Lanka this autumn but the ECB have decided that centrally-contracted players must be available for both limited-overs formats or neither.

"I am immensely proud of my achievements in the one-day game, and still wish to be considered for selection for England in Test cricket," he added.

"For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20."

Pietersen's absence for the World Twenty20 is particularly relevant given he was the only England batsman to be selected in the recently concluded Indian Premier League.

As a result of his decision, Pietersen's current England contract will be downgraded for the rest of its duration and he will only be available in the future for a lower-tier deal.

‘For the record, were the selection criteria not in place, I would have readily played for England in the upcoming ICC World Twenty20.’ 

Hugh Morris, managing director England cricket, added: ‘ECB is disappointed by the timing of Kevin’s decision less than four months before we defend our ICC World Twenty20 title. 

‘Kevin is a world class player and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his efforts and we look forward to his continued contributions to the Test match side. 

‘As the programming and planning for ODI and T20 format cricket are very closely linked we have a selection policy that means that any player making himself unavailable for either of the one day formats, rules himself out of consideration for both formats. 

‘The selectors will now replace Kevin in both the ODI and the T20 squads.’