Now Pietersen faces his first overseas tour, the daunting challenge of a seven-match one-day series against an India team full of confidence after a crushing Test series win over Australia.
My hope for this dynamic is that it will allow people to first play Star Citizen in a safer more single player open world style, but as they grow in confidence and want to test their mettle against other real players they can take the training wheels off and get into battles with real players.
Even though Fannie and Freddie have always been considered, because of their size, to have implicit government support, the Treasury will not have wished to put confidence in that to the test at an auction.
But it was the loss of Samuels just three overs before the close which really gave West Indies food for thought as they look to regain some confidence ahead of the second Test in Hobart.
BBC: Samuels hit two sixes and five fours in his half century
Most teachers from the ATL, National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of Teachers who were polled on the issue said they feared pupils who failed the test would have their confidence dented.
Australia ended a tough last couple of days on a positive note with Ricky Ponting hitting 51 not out and Shane Watson unbeaten on 41, but England will hope to take more confidence with them to the second Test at Adelaide.
That would go a long way in boosting confidence in bank stocks as the stress test has been deemed fairly onerous.
The test may also reflect more local confidence in South Africa than the pessimists expected.
Shadow treasury minister Chris Leslie said the news was "yet another blow to a downgraded chancellor who made keeping the confidence of the credit rating agencies the number one test of his economic policy".
No itinerant observer could believe it was the same Muttiah Muralitharan who has taken a record 788 Test wickets - but such was India's confidence with the bat that he was swiftly dismantled as an attacking threat.
BBC: Virender Sehwag blitzes Sri Lanka as India pile on runs
Its ratification depends on there being confidence that the US nuclear warhead stockpile can be safely and effectively maintained without test detonations.
BBC: Obama's world image tarnished - but policies will remain
For Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Pandora and others that are poised to test the public markets, a strong LinkedIn IPO will provide more confidence that they can move forward with their own offerings.
After the disappointment of the recent Test series defeat to South Africa, England will no doubt take great confidence from handing them a first defeat in 10 one-day matches.
Former Test umpire Darrell Hair believes the use of technology in cricket is denting the confidence of umpires.
Cricket South Africa officials gave a vote of confidence to captain Graeme Smith after a tough tour of Australia, where they lost the Test series 2-0.
When clues are read by the host they are fed electronically to Watson, which parses the text, formulates hunches and checks all the evidence it can retrieve to test its hunches and then generates its five best answers, assigning each a confidence level before deciding whether to buzz in.
But English students showed a confidence in their science abilities - with 72% saying they could give good answers to science test questions and 64% saying they could easily understand new ideas in science - above the OECD average.
It was their 20th successive Test victory at Eden Park, where they have not lost since 1994, and a major confidence booster after some stuttering early-season displays against France and Italy.
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