World is scary place, sport should be used to unite people: Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen

New Delhi: Former Cricketer Kevin Pietersen has said that "the war, conflict and pandemic have made the world a scary place". He said that if sport can be used to unite and bring people together, it should be used for the purpose.
"The war is scary. Pandemics and future pandemics are scary. So when we talk about cricket and the opportunity to unite, sport should be used. I think that sport can be used in some sort of fashion to be able to try and mend it (the world)," he said. A former captain of England cricket team, Pietersen was speaking on Friday at panel discussion 'Turbulence, Temperament, And Temerity: Leadership In The Age Of Uncertainty' at Raisina Dialogue here.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair were part of the panel discussion.
Pietersen referred to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions and said the world is at the moment is a scary place.
"Cricket is an issue because China and America don't play cricket. Russia definitely doesn't play cricket.." he said in a lighter vein.
He also talked about the world being digitally scary place.
Pietersen said politics should not merge with sports in a manner where it picks teams and favours different people.
"Right now, any opportunity to unify and unite, whether it's countries, whether it's people, it needs to happen," he said.
"The last couple of years has been chaos for all of us. So if there are new opportunities and we need to change the way that we think, I think now is the right time to do it. And if cricket or sport is something that can be used in a conversation why can't we use it," he added. (ANI)