Kevin

Pietersen’s eyes roll slightly when he is asked about Ben Stokes’ recent comments comparing Harry Brook’s talents to his.

Pietersen, like Brook, was a maverick – a batter capable of incredible highs. Those highs mean the lows come with a disproportionate level of criticism.

“Where I can help him is playing situations, because there was a lot of method in my madness,” Pietersen says.

“Yes, occasionally, I got out to reckless shots and crazy shots in the ’80s and ’90s but there was a lot of structure to the way that I batted.

“I’ve still got notes on my phone on how I played in T20 cricket, one-day cricket, Test match cricket, and about hitting straight back at the stumps, and the techniques, and how I did it, and don’t play certain shots.

“That all-round structure is something I could potentially help him with because he’s so flipping good.

“It’s actually frightening how good he is and how good he can be.”

And Pietersen says he will not limit himself to working purely on white-ball cricket.

He has already spoken to new Test coach Stephen Fleming about how he can help the Test batters during his time with the white-ball squads.

Though he said he would not have time for a full-time role, he suggested he is open to working with the Test side before next summer’s home Ashes series.

“I have got a pretty mad schedule,” he says. “I wouldn’t say no.

“I don’t think that necessarily means I need to be in a dressing room.

“There is a lot of time in the lead up to an Ashes series and a tour of South Africa, when I will be with the Test batters.

“There are conversations I can have there.”

Who knows how long this will last. England may as well make the most of this second chance.

Kevin McCloud appeared on BBC’s The One Show to discuss the latest series of Grand Designs which will see the presenter revisit a project from the very first series

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud has confessed there’s moments from the Channel 4 show which leaves him reaching for the remote control.

The 67-year-old designer and presenter returns to television screens on Wednesday (September 16) to front a brand new series of the beloved renovation programme.

He has hosted Grand Designs since it began 27 years ago back in 1999 and appeared on BBC’s The One Show tonight to chat to Alex Jones and JB Gill about the new episodes set to air which will see the presenter revisit a project from the very first series.

When discussing watching back old clips, Kevin joked: “Yeah that’s painful to watch for me! I have to skip through the fast forward button a lot through these early episodes but the house has not changed, everything is as it was, and when you make the stuff and you record a moment in time, you don’t know whether that idea, that style and approach, whether it will last and have value, and remarkably that house has remained the same and is almost a fantastic example of a mid-1990s building so sometimes it comes back to surprise you.”

Channel 4 announced earlier this month that Grand Designs and Grand Designs: House of the Year will be coming back this Autumn. The iconic and much-loved house building and design show returns with four extraordinary new builds and two long-awaited revisits, spanning across the United Kingdom.

According to bosses, the new series series embraces bold ideas and innovation, showcasing pioneering construction methods and ambitious architecture whilst never losing sight of the people behind them.

Kevin previously said: “It is always a joy to get a series of Grand Designs complete and ready for broadcast – especially when it can run alongside its sister series, House of the Year.

“Together they celebrate the very best in British architecture and remind me of the extraordinary imaginative and resilient potential of human beings. This year is no exception: there are some astonishing stories and homes to discover.”

When asked what he believes is the reason that Grand Designs keeps coming back, Kevin explained: “I think it is the unpredictability of it all. If we were restoring people’s homes for them, then we might have slipped into a predictable format but we haven’t.

“Some of the projects on this series are fascinatingly unpredictable. For example, we see Seb in North-West London, building a house which was completed in 13 months and I was so shocked because O am used to things taking forever.

“We also have a project in Edinburgh, which has been going for over 10 years, and when you look at the date stamps as we go through the programme, you sort of appreciate how some people dedicate a lot of their lives to a building.”

He added: “I thought in series one we might run out of projects. We thought that we had done an eco-project, a modern white block, a glass house, we did the eccentric thing. We thought, will people still tune in if we do another glass box? But the answer is yes, because from the beginning we set ourselves the challenge that in every episode there has to be something new – there has to be some story, some angles, something, a hook.

“Luckily, since architecture is so much about place and response to a place and so much about people and response to people and because places are so infinitely diverse, people are infinitely diverse, this is what makes every project and what keeps me on my toes every time.

“If you look at this coming series, every single project has something unique about it and i find that so fascinating, all of the individual narratives are so different. The houses are all so unique architecturally and in the way they are built.”

The One Show airs weekdays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 7pm and Grand Designs returns to Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday, September 16

Aug. 28 (UPI) — Economists and financial markets will be watching closely on Friday when the Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh delivers a keynote address at the central bank’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Federal Reserve chairmen often use the speech to discuss monetary policy initiatives on a broad level, including offering insight into future interest rate plans. Since being appointed chairman in May, Warsh has been scant with details on future policy decisions and Friday’s address is expected to be more of the same.

The U.S. economy continues to face inflation pressures with inflation rates well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target. Under Warsh, inflation markers have moved higher yet while the Federal Open Market Committee has maintained its benchmark interest rates at 3.5% to 3.75%.

Some members in the central bank are calling for another hike in interest rates, which would be a first since July 2023.

“If I had to guess, I would say that he’s going to give a very high-level, broad look at the work of the task forces and how he thinks the Fed should operate, as opposed to a nuts-and-bolts assessment of the economy and expectations for policy,” Luke Tilley, chief economist at M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors, told CNBC.

Warsh has established five task forces that are reviewing how the Federal Reserve approaches its policy decisions, including its use of data, technology including artificial intelligence, and its balance sheet.

The Federal Open Market Committee did not meet in August. Its next meeting is on Sept. 15 and 16, during which it will decide whether to hold interest rates firm or make adjustments.

After Warsh’s address following last month’s FOMC meeting, yields for long-term bonds rose. This happens when bond traders are skeptical that the central bank will cool inflation.