Summer in St Lucia for Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen will play for the St Lucia Zoulks
4 April 2014

Kevin Pietersen will play for the St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League after being selected as the first pick in the 2014 draft.

Pietersen will join West Indies captain Darren Sammy and Australian veteran Brad Hodge at the Zouks who are coached by former England and Glamorgan batsman Matthew Maynard. The tournament begins in July and ends in August.

A tweet from the CPL read: "@SLUZouks have chosen Kevin Pieterson as their pick of the first Round ! Welcome to the Caribbean Kevin !"

Defending champions the Jamaica Tallawahs chose Andre Russell with their first pick while the Antigua Hawksbills chose Sheldon Cottrell, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel picked Darren Bravo, the Barbados Tridents went for Dwayne Smith and Mohammad Hafeez was chosen by the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

Pietersen's first round selection meant he was in the maximum 80,000 US dollars 'salary slab', setting his base earning at approximately £48,000.

Each of the six teams are allowed one West Indies franchise player and one International franchise player which were selected before the draft.

The teams then select 13 players each during the draft and add four local under-19s players to make up a final squad of 19.

Following his England axing after the winter's Ashes whitewash, Pietersen has been freed to pick and choose where he plays around the world.

Pietersen is already signed up to play, and captain, the Delhi Daredevils when the Indian Premier League begins later this month, while he is set to appear for Surrey in the newly-badged Twenty20 Blast in England.

A clause in his Surrey contract allowed Pietersen to accept an approach to play in the CPL, with some reports that he would be ready to commute between the Caribbean and England for matches.

Pietersen has stated that he would be available for Surrey whenever required, writing on Twitter: "I will be fulfilling ALL my @surreycricket commitments and just flying into the Caribbean to honour this opportunity..."

With the IPL to begin in the United Arab Emirates, before returning to India after the country's elections, Pietersen is set for a hectic jet-set lifestyle as he follows the domestic Twenty20 circuits.

"April - Dubai, May - India, June/July - London, Aug - Caribbean, Sept - London, Oct - Africa. Pretty chuffed with my summer!" he wrote on Twitter.

Ireland's Kevin O'Brien was selected in the sixth round by the Red Steel but former England players Simon Jones, Owais Shah and Dimitri Mascarenhas all went undrafted.

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