I?ll wager that the likes of Strauss are just as arrogant as Pietersen when you get to know them personably, they just don?t show it in the same way. At least KP?s personality has (or used to have) a certain na?ve honesty to its arrogance. Going by my own personal prejudices I suspect he is of a certain type of privately educated, arrogant South African that I grew-up, went to school with and have developed a particular distaste for over my lifetime but I don?t for a minute believe that the England team isn?t peppered with the English equivalent. But those are my personal prejudices and, while based soundly on personal experience, prejudices are often wrong. Who knows, the guy may be humble in his personal life but just backs himself (very justifiably) when it comes to cricket. You don?t select these guys on their personality though unless it actually hampers their performance to the point where there is someone who is better. He is the most talented batsman of this generation. Most runs in his first 50 tests bar none except Bradman, fastest batsman ever to 4000 test runs, and average of 50 after 54 tests and still the best English batsman of this series despite playing with an injury which was quite visibly hampering him. He is also the most entertaining batsman to watch since Brian Lara. Most English pundits have gradually come to accept this but some still stick to the original indignation they had in his early career which was based on the fact that he was brilliant, arrogant and South African and that England could never have produced a player of the same calibre.