Kevin Pietersen's shocking and explosive remarks on England tour to West Indies have more to them than meets the eye.

The dynamic English batsman (alongwith Andrew Flintoff) has been signed up as the most expensive player in the history of IPL, surpassing Indian skipper MS Dhoni.

Pietersen, as is common knowledge, would not be able to play all of the IPL as he would have to return home from South Africa to join his team who host the West Indies for a return tour.

Now. Is Pietersen's attempt to ridicule his team and captain a ploy? A ploy to anger the management to such an extent that they ban him for a substantial period from his national commitments so that he can actually play the entire duration of the IPL and lead his team, the Bangalore Royal Challengers?

KP has gone on record saying he is at the end of his tether and that he wanted to return home for 48 hours bang in the middle of the tour. He further voiced his disagreement with England skipper Andrew Strauss on his tactical calls, saying he was so frustrated that he was missing his wife and would not go to any future tour without his wife for company.

Pietersen has had a history of rifts and tantrums in the English team. When he took over the reigns of captaincy from Paul Collingwood, there were circles which doubted the sanity of the decision. KP was believed to be a self-centered man, who looked beyond no more than his means.

And that is what happened at the end of his team's disastrous tour of India. The hosts beat them 1-0 in the Test series before whitewashing them 5-0 in the ODI series.

Pietersen got into a war of words with Yuvraj Singh, which was lapped up by both the Indian and British media. And then spilled open the can of worms, where his differences with then coach Duncan Fletcher came to the fore.

After weeks of drama, the England and Wales Cricket Board had to take a stand. Both captain and coach were sacked, with KP holding on to his place in the England team by virtue of his batting skills.

A sacked skipper, KP was clearly cornered. He had an average Test series, getting runs in the first innings of the first Test and the last innings of the last Test.

For a man, who has so much at stake now, it sounded presposterous of him to go out with his toungue blazing. And if that was not enough, KP lashed out as West Indies middle order mainstay Shivnarine Chanderpaul, saying the southpaw was not a team man and avoided taking the field after doing his bit with the bat.

Windies skipper Chris Gayle reprimanded KP, asking him to tender an apology. Too many words from a man, who should clearly be focussing on his game.

With the second edition of the IPL looming large and with KP set to lead Vijay Mallya's side, his eyes would be no doubt glued on playing the entire tournament.

And if his side goes on to win, think of all the dough the winners would take home and add to that the eventuality of KP bagging the Player of the Tournament award. Money at stake folks. Lots of it.

And what with the endorsements! A good show this time and Pietersen's worth might go the extra distance next year.

Pietersen might have found it difficult to keep his temptations at bay with so much up for the grabs from the lucrative Twenty20 extravaganza.

While the entire world might be aghast at the way KP has misfired, we might actually be looking at a man playing a shrewd little game to snatch the extra buck.