But of the 500 or so people who turned up for a sunny but cold Sunday at The Parks to watch Oxford MCCU host Surrey in a three-day friendly match, few would have bet against Pietersen plundering a century in his first game of red-ball cricket for 15 months, and on the eve of England's first Test with West Indies in Antigua.
For my part – plundering singles by Artful Dodger, by Semisonic – I have a memory of actually looking over my shoulder.
But, say Editors, they're not plundering a now-fashionable past.
But most games remain trapped in the economics of their time: they are closed markets, with a variety of static business models, most of which involve destroying your opponent, monopolising designs, or plundering resources.
In the past few years they had seen Ben Ali and his family and friends become extremely rich by plundering the nation.
But at the least Mr Thein Sein and his allies lamented the dead end into which their country was driven, first by military-led socialism and then, under Mr Thein Sein's pitiless predecessor, Than Shwe, by army cronies plundering the country's wealth.
Critics, including most recently the Prince of Wales, accuse the biotechnology industry of being more interested in plundering the crop than splendour in the grass.
They are the first and, so far, only act managed by Chrome Entertainment, set up in 2011 with an initial investment of only 10m won by Hwang Hyun-chang.Mr Hwang, aged 34, was a commercial photographer who financed his K-pop adventure by selling his camera gear, plundering his savings and running up debts.
The Misratans have reduced Tawergha to a caked-earth ghost town, plundering its houses, shooting up its hospitals and schools, and smashing its utilities.In this section Will he make a difference?
It may yet be able to bolster profits by plundering its vast hidden reserves.
Blacky Durazo became a brutal chief of police in Mexico City, eventually jailed for plundering millions of pesos from the public purse.Until 1981, the price of Mexican crude kept rising, reaching a peak of $38.50.
