Beaten champions England will be back home from their failed ICC World Twenty20 campaign by the time they are any the wiser as to whether Kevin Pietersen may soon be a team-mate again.
The coach Andy Flower was required both to assess England's early elimination and make public utterance for the first time in more than a month on Pietersen's contractual status. He deferred, in some measure, on the latter, on the grounds that an intended press conference "in the next 36 hours" is likely to provide a telling update.
There has been no official confirmation from the England and Wales Cricket Board yet, but it is thought that the intention is that the chairman Giles Clarke, and perhaps Pietersen himself, will issue a statement and take questions.
The batsman was not available for England's defence of their World Twenty20 crown – because of his well-chronicled contract wrangles and the breakdown of his working relationship with Flower and former Test captain Andrew Strauss.
It is understood, though, that peace may have broken out, and Pietersen assured one follower on Twitter that he will be "back soon".
If he does agree a central contract, he ought to return to the fold for at least some part of England's winter in India and then New Zealand.
Flower was in no position yesterday to pre-empt Clarke, but did say: "The situation is ongoing. I think it's nearing an end now – in a positive way, I hope."
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