Instead of a couple of green smilies, how about you refute his claims? well?
Bit rich coming from you, being someone who always posts a line and almost never substantially backs it up. Everyone assumes you know something because you've made a million posts on this forum, but no one's actually seen you argue a point... occasionally you provide some shit one liner.
I'm not sure how you can't be convinced he has the class, on form and on his day he's one of (if not the) finest batsmen in the world. He was vital in the ashes victory of '05 for example, against a very good Australia. If he hits his best form for the winter Ashes series I can't see past an England victory.
On his day, he's certainly not the finest batsman in the world. There are plenty of people who're more classy on their day and have shown it more consistently. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Kallis, Amla, Smith, De Villiers, Jayawardene, Sangakarra are all at least as good as him, and some notably better.
Pietersen's average is sub-50 against all of the proper test playing countries barring Australia. He has an average of 68 against Bangladesh and 57 against West Indies, who are both rather crap(in the case of Windies, rather crap since he started playing).
His average when you consider playing away is even poorer with an average of 40 in India, 43 in NZ, 33 in Pakistan, 25 in South Africa, 25 in Sri Lanka.
It's almost nonsensical to suggest that he's
the finest player(I'm assuming you mean at the moment) on his day.
Having said that, I think the people who deride him as being over-rated are going too far. I think on his day, he can be world class. He's destructive, and his problem has always been with his temperament rather than technique. His technique's excellent in most cases.
I can't argue with the poster who said he's one of the most destructive guys to have played the game -- I haven't seen cricket long enough for that.