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Kevin Pietersen will begin the process of attempting reconciliation with the England management on Saturday when he meets the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
He is believed to have agreed to a meeting with Andy Flower and Hugh Morris, the managing director of the England team, as the two sides try to solve their differences.
Both camps are keen for the issue to be resolved swiftly, although it is unlikely that one meeting will be the end of the process.
Flower and Morris will lead the negotiations on the ECB’s behalf before Alastair Cook, the new Test captain, takes a role.
The issue of the messages Kevin Pietersen sent to the South African team will be high on the agenda but will be far from easy to solve.
It is believed many of the exchanges were conducted not via text message but through the instant messaging system of Blackberry messenger and none have been stored.
Blackberry messenger is used by many sportsmen and celebrities as a method of exchange because a user can set the phone up to not store old messages, making it safer if the handset is lost or stolen.
Whereas evidence of a text appears on an itemised phone bill, Blackberry messenger exchanges do not, making them virtually impossible to trace.
In this situation it means the ECB will have to accept Pietersen’s word on what the exchanges involved. If true, it offers a convenient escape route for both Pietersen and the ECB.
It is easier to move on if there is no factual record of what took place. So far, Pietersen has admitted they contained “provocative” content while the South African management have dismissed them as mere “banter”.
Pietersen is believed to have contacted the ECB to set up the meeting which fits in between England’s one-day internationals in London this weekend and Surrey’s fixtures.
Both sides insist the meeting has to take place “behind closed doors”.
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