By Oliver Brett

After 11 days of cricket in barely two weeks, most professional cricketers would be desperate for a day at home doing something nondescript.

Pietersen gets in touch with his computerised alter ego

Perhaps a gentle drive with the missus to a country pub, a few holes of golf or reclining on the living-room sofa with a cup of tea and a magazine might suffice.

But then the phrase "most professional cricketers" does not include Kevin Peter Pietersen, who has instead used a rare day off to promote Kevin Pietersen.

Well that's perhaps a little bit unfair. He has actually signed up to a couple of public relations "opportunities" in central London.

The second engagement takes place in Soho, at a nightclub called Punk.

It is slightly unnerving to be served weird-coloured drinks by girls in white hot pants at 3pm on a weekday.

But this is how these places operate - and if the tabloids are to be believed, KP would know a thing or two about West End nightspots.

In the early stages of the West Indies tour, he took his great mate Chris Gayle, plus Ramnaresh Sarwan and Runako Morton, out to dinner not far from here.

"They are very, very nice guys," he tells BBC Sport at the launch of Kevin Pietersen Pro Cricket 2007.

"I get on really well with them. Chris is a good friend of mine. I've known him for two years and we keep in touch.

He's a world-class performer so I'm not embarrassed ...On being dismissed by Gayle in the fourth Test

"You play the sport to make friends, to enjoy yourself. It's a very important part of the game."

Pietersen dismisses the suggestion of discord within the Windies camp and is hoping for some exciting cricket in the one-day internationals against them.

"I've played against them twice. Both times we chased down 300, once in Ahmedabad and once in Barbados.

"They were great exciting games, so hopefully we can get some really good games in the next couple of weeks which people deserve."

West Indies generally provided meek opposition in the Tests, but if Gayle can start middling a few more of his expansive drives - it might be a different story in the shorter game.

"He's a very good player," says Pietersen. "I played with him in the world team as well and he's a sensational talent.

"He's a good man and I've got a lot of time for him. He plays the game in the right spirit."

Gayle, also the West Indies captain for the remainder of their tour, had Pietersen caught at slip with England just a few runs from the winning-post in the Riverside Test.

Pietersen's verdict? "I'm big enough to accept it. He's a world-class performer so I'm not embarrassed."

Unlike other sides, England do not pick official vice-captains any more. But Pietersen wants to give Paul Collingwood plenty of assistance with team tactics.

He is also keen to protect his status as the number one batsman in one-day cricket.

We play international cricket for 12 months a year so when we get our time off we deserve our time off

"I'd love to keep it. I strive to be the best player in the world and the best I can possibly be," he says.

"I just try to look to improve every single day and if I keep the tag I do, if I don't I just keep on making sure I go through the right processes every day and wherever that takes me it takes me."

Pietersen is taken aback a bit when I inquire if the England dressing-room is a quieter place without the injured Andrew Flintoff.

"The dressing-room is much of a muchness; no the dressing-room's fine," he vehemently insists.

But along with many others around the England set-up he longs to see Flintoff and Simon Jones bowling together for England again.

With domestic Twenty20 now upon us, it is also a relevant opportunity to ask if Pietersen regrets playing so little for Hampshire.

"To be honest, mate, we play so much international cricket it's not something that frustrates me at all," he replies.

"We play international cricket for 12 months a year so when we get our time off we deserve our time off."