He seemed destined to play out his career in Twenty20 tournaments across the cricket-playing world. But Pietersen has been granted the opportunity to prove himself worthy of a return to the England team by the ECB's chairman-elect Colin Graves, who said last month that players would be picked on performance and not personality when he takes over from Giles Clarke in May.
Graves challenged Pietersen to commit fully to county cricket and display the batting form to earn an England recall.
Pietersen has resolved to do exactly that. Several hours after Telegraph Sport broke the story, Pietersen confirmed his intentions to Fox Sports in Australia, where he is about to begin work as a World Cup pundit.
Asked if he was intending to play county cricket, he said: "That's what I'm looking at at the moment. There will be a change of scenery at board level with the ECB and I've always expressed my desire to play for England again if I get the opportunity.
"It seems encouraging but I've obviously got a few steps that I've got to climb. It just makes perfect sense to explore different things - that's what I'm doing.
"There's nothing to add (to the reports). Whatever you've seen, you've seen. I've still got more decisions to make - it's [the] weekend now so nobody will be picking up their phones, but (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) will be very exciting, hopefully."
Pietersen also retweeted Telegraph Sport's revelation of his intention to play county cricket, together with the numbers 626 and 185 - his Test and ODI numbers for England.
A return to his most recent former county Surrey is the most likely outcome, although it is understood that six counties have expressed an interest in signing him since Graves opened the door to an England comeback.
Pietersen was signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League auction in January for a deal worth around £300,000 (NZ$603,000). The IPL season starts on April 9 and runs until May 25, which is four days after the start of England's first test of the summer against New Zealand at Lord's.
To have any chance of playing for England, Pietersen has to show his full commitment by pulling out of the IPL and agreeing to play all formats of the game in county cricket.
He also has a deal to play for the St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League from the end of June but by then he will have a good idea of whether or not his England ambitions have any realistic chance of being fulfilled.
Negotiations over that contract, if necessary, could start at a later date. A return for Pietersen may force Downton to consider his position at the ECB, having sacked him at the end of the last Ashes tour when he accused Pietersen of being "disinterested" in the fifth test against Australia.
Since then England have reappointed Peter Moores as coach, who has a long history with Pietersen. Moores has blooded several younger players while Matt Prior, the team-mate of whom Pietersen was most critical, is no longer part of the England team.
England overturned a 1-0 deficit against India to win the test series 3-1 last summer but Alastair Cook's captaincy remains on an unstable footing due to his own lack of runs.
Their one-day form has been a disaster with the World Cup ending with a hollow win over Afghanistan and a failure to reach the quarter-final stage.
Pietersen has not played first-class cricket since the end of the Ashes tour in January 2014 and showed mixed form in the IPL and T20 Cup last season before returning to something close to his best during a successful Big Bash in Australia.
A knee injury has eased because he has not played a lot of cricket and he found in the Big Bash he could once again play his trademark strokes without pain. Pietersen was the second highest run scorer in the Big Bash with 293 runs from eight innings with three half-centuries but it was the return of his old dominance over bowlers which proved to himself he could still be a force.
Pietersen was in good form during the Big Bash competition in Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Winning back his England place will depend on two factors: first, he will have to prove his own form in county cricket, and second, vacancies would need to arise in England's new middle order. Ian Bell now bats in his position at No 4, Joe Root made a success at No 5, scoring three Test hundreds, and Gary Ballance made three centuries at No?3.
England return to Test cricket after an eight-month absence in the West Indies in April, a period of inactivity in that format which means that nobody is certain of their place. It remains to be seen how this disastrous World Cup will damage the confidence of players who appear in both formats and if England struggle or lose to West Indies then another crisis will ensue.
Their opponents are weak and the pitches will be flat so there should be plenty of runs on offer but the thought of a determined Pietersen returning to county cricket will put pressure on several individuals to perform.
His presence in county cricket will lift the domestic game. He has only played nine championship matches since making his test debut almost a decade ago but has scored runs with ease on those occasions, including four centuries and one double hundred.
A similar return in the first few weeks of the championship season would see a clamour for England's selectors to recall him.
