"Logistically it just doesn't work and it just creates more nonsense for me. Why would I create that nonsense?"

So said former Ageas Bowl batsman Kevin Pietersen when asked about the prospect of retiring from one-day cricket a year ago.

At the time he was offering an impassioned denial that he had considered turning his back on the 50-over game in the aftermath of the World Cup.

Either his words on that day were a bluff or something has changed dramatically in Pietersen's outlook.

Whichever it is, if what Pietersen meant by 'nonsense' was a wide-ranging discussion about his relationship with ECB hierarchy and much hand-wringing about the influence of money-spinning Twenty20 gigs like the Indian Premier League then he was absolutely correct.

England, and their box-office middle-order batsman, can expect plenty of that in the near future.

Expect a forensic examination of Pietersen's Test future. Expect question marks over whether he will sign - or, indeed, should be offered an England contract when are up for renewal in September. Expect dozens of questions, and acres of column inches, about the impossible fixture burden on international cricketers as well as the undeniable lure of the IPL and its upstart cousins.

For as much as Pietersen is capable of causing fireworks on the pitch, he may have just created even more by deciding to step off it - in limited-overs cricket, at least.

The bald fact is this: England has lost its headline act in the one-day game.

Test matches are, and will remain, the heart and soul of the sport and Pietersen, as evidenced by his decision to continue at the top level, is a man who recognises that.

But Twenty20 cricket and its 50-over forefather are the formats that get the adrenaline pumping worldwide. They keep the turnstiles busy, the bars empty and the stadia pumping and it is players like Pietersen who make it happen.

For England to lose a batsman who is so talented, so experienced and so downright marketable is a huge blow and cannot be explained away as anything else.

The announcement that despite retiring from ODIs Pietersen was willing to help defend the World Twenty20 crown he did more than almost anyone else to help win two years ago was intriguing. The ECB's revelation that they had declined his offer even more so.

It is a line in the sand moment. No player now will be allowed to be available for one format and not the other - a bold call in an era when selective availability is on the up due to the exhausting number of international fixtures.

That KP was the man to draw this rule out of the ECB begs further questions, though.

In recent years he has lost the captaincy in controversial circumstances, been fined or censured for his use of Twitter on two occasions and had the extent of a World Cup-ending injury queried by team director Andy Flower.

Is his relationship with England all that it could be? Might fans or team-mates be frustrated to see him cash in on Twenty20 deals in India, Australia, Sri Lanka and beyond while they pound the ICC's fixture treadmill? Does his one-day exit make his Test departure more or less likely?

It will be hard to escape such queries when England reconvene at Edgbaston next week. They would be well advised to treat them as anything but nonsense.