KEVIN PIETERSEN BETTING SPECIALS

Kevin MacDonald is now the Even money favourite to become the permanent successor to Martin O’Neill in the next Aston Villa manager betting. MacDonald had been unsure as to whether he would put himself forward for the role following a brief stint as caretaker manager at the start of this season, but has now decided to apply.

Everton manager David Moyes and Fulham boss Mark Hughes had both been linked with the job over the past couple of days after the Villa board revealed that they were looking for a manager with Premier League experience. However, it now appears that MacDonald’s desire will be enough to land him the job.

Paddy Power are offering odds of Evens for MacDonald, Sven Goran Eriksson is a 4/1 chance, Moyes is 7/2 and Hughes is 18/1.

In cricket, Kevin Pietersen has been dropped from England’s Twenty20 and ODI squads for the forthcoming series’ against Pakistan. Pietersen revealed the news on his Twitter account, before the official announcement by the ECB, by saying: “Yep... Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.. Its a fuck up!!”

KP has been struggling with his form since the Twenty20 World Cup where he was named the player of the tournament and will now return to county cricket with Surrey. Pietersen will be looking to regain his form ahead of this winter’s Ashes tour or otherwise faces a few months on the sidelines.

He will make his debut for Surrey in today’s CB40 match against Worcestershire and he can be backed at 7/2 with Betfred to be Surrey’s top batsmen, he is 6/4 with SkyBet to score 50 runs or more and 10/1 to score a century. If you think his misery will be compounded then you can bet on him to score a duck at odds of 12/1.