Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 12 (NT): The MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) awards event was held yesterday in which the Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen delivered his maiden address and now has become the first overseas cricketer to speak here.

In the lecture, which has been previously addressed by the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Farukh Engineer, Pietersen expressed his delight on being chosen to deliver the speech, making him the first non-Indian to do so.

Speaking about the Afghanistan players who attended the awards ahead of their very first Test match against India, he asserted that there are many others better qualified to portray the social, political and cultural impact of that fair leap. , “But I know what it means as a sportsman”.

He added that “Because, in my humble opinion a hard fought five-day test match remains the greatest all-round challenge in modern day sport”.

 He was quoted by ANI as saying that "A challenge as mentally demanding as it is physical. A challenge demanding the very highest levels of concentration of technique, of determination, of stamina, all, for the batsman at least, with no second chances”.

In his address he urged the players to play beyond their potential and mentioned Jos Buttler as saying, "Don't restrict yourself to a form of cricket that, however brilliant, doesn't require mastery of every skill. Only Test cricket can do that. Ask Jos Buttler who scored so prolifically here at the IPL before his recall to the English test team whether he valued any of those stunning 20-20 knocks for Rajustan Royals as highly as the man of the match in the second test match v Pakistan last month at Headingly.”

His selection to appear in the event  met with a fair amount of displeasure among the officials of the BCCI, with the top cricketing authority's acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary who expressed his annoyance regarding the same.