The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[shankycricket]

A good read, this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrew- ... 71498.html

[Arthur Crabtree]

That's difficult to read. Why has he written it in the style of a 1930s society piece written by some self regarding, rather pompous bright young thing?

Places cigarette into holder and strikes the onyx spirit of ecstasy cigarette lighter...

Darling! Are you using the Bentley tonight?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Rest and rotation. A good policy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ju ... on-bowlers

[meninblue]

the one thing that does make me chuckle about this thread is the same people who are outraged by KP wanting to supposedly pick and choose what games he plays in are those who wouldn't want him playing in the first place

I think there are exceptions to that comment.

IMO KP is Englands best ODI batsman i have seen play. On the world level he may not be better than Sachins, Lara's, Kallis, Ponting, A B D, Sehwag, Virat etc but he is surely there in the top 15 best batters in ODI. So IMO he is a by default selection or first name i would put in selecting England ODI batsmen in the squad. Second would be Trott and third would be Cook.

Having said that if i were the selector or coach or the captain and one of my player said he goes to play street cricket tournament because there are cash prizes in it unlike the weekend club match which has none, and then the next week he says he cannot play the weekend club match or cannot tour with the team for a 15 day tour some other city because he is tired due to playing in street cricket tournament, then i would certainly not like it. I would select some other player irrespective of his quality of his batting. The fans will want their player to play. Fans even want Amir, Salman , Azhar, Salim, Jadeja to play . But the administrators, selectors and captains cannot play them. Likewise in KP's case, fans want him to play but the Board clearly knows that he played the domestic tournament and wants to skip international tourney because he is tired.

And if either of them had of gone and then wanted time off from playing for England, they'd get the same criticism.

Yes, any cricketer giving preference to IPL/SCL/Big bash over international matches which follow soon will meet same criticism.

[rich1uk]

sorry adi but thats a ludicrous comparison

you cannot compare the situation in which KP has become unavailable to players who have been banned for cheating , and he made it quite clear he wanted to continue playing t20s but the ECB are taking the tough line and making an example of him

one other thing there is absolutely no proof that he wouldn't have made the same request to miss some of this summers ODIs even if he had not played in the IPL, people just want to assume the worst when it comes to KP

and btw i have made it clear i dont agree with anyone being allowed to rest for games and want to see the strongest possible team play every game barring injuries and therefore do not agree with him asking to be rested regardless of the situation, but people are just making assumptions about the connection to the IPL. if it was all about money and the IPL he would have retired from tests not limited overs cricket

was KP wrong to ask to be rested, yes imo he was, was it unreasonable for him to think the ECB might have agreed to rest him based on the fact they have stated publically they want to rotate the squad to avoid burnout with the intense programme england have over the next 18 months and have allowed players to miss whole overseas tours in the recent past as well, no i dont think it was unreasonable. he misjudged the situation and what we have seen is two stubborn parties both refusing to compromise to the detriment of english cricket and the fans

[meninblue]

Rich, i gave example to show that the administrators cannot think like fans. The team protocols have to be given utmost priority. Andrew Symonds who would make any international ODI team was dropped for his behavior. Flintoff was reprimanded for going into the sea and drinking there till early hours before some test match. Some English player missed test match for violating some team protocol. So why should KP be an exclusion when Englands and other teams best cricketers have been made to follow team protocols. Ryder dropped for his behavior. If there is truth in IPL effect as far as KP's retirement is concerned then it ia also a matter of concern like acts done by other players. So if in case KP has asked for rest , then he is not justified at least immediately after playing IPL. If at all there is truth in this, then it would set a wrong precedent for English players. Swann, Broad, Mascarenhas, Wright etc may also wish for similar treatment in future. Should the ECB allow this. IMO it's a bad precedent so a big NO. If the player goes against the policies of the team or acts in sucha way that is detrimental to the team or sets a bad precedent even though that act is not part of team policy, then the player should be dealt with accordingly irrespective of his quality/talent/skils.

[rich1uk]

sorry adi but i still disagree

all the examples you are using are when players quite clearly broke the rules and were thus punished for doing so

all KP did was ask to be rested for some games this summer , and while as i said i do not agree with that, i maintain it was not unreasonable for him to ask the question considering the ECB have already set precedents for resting players and KP being one of the few players who played in all three formats must have been a candidate to be rested anyway

and i repeat there is no way to tell whether the same request would have been made whether he had played in the IPL or not

[meninblue]

Like i said, those are my views only in case KP had actually asked for rest.

Gayle, some Indian players who played with minor injuries in IPL and missed later international tourneys etc have come under criticism in the domestic versus country debate. That debate is just not about KP. It's an issue being tackled by various boards.

[rich1uk]

i dont think theres any doubt he asked for a rest adi

as far as i know however he didn't break any rules when he did that

the ECB have set precedents for resting players

the ECB have said they are worried about the impact of the schedule over the next 18 months and want to rest players, especially those that play in all three formats

and there is no way anyone on here can know whether he would have made the same request or not if he hadn't played in the IPL, but the IPL and KP tend to be easy targets for people to moan about, so here we have a perfect storm, people can have a go at both targets at the same time

i'm not a fan of the IPL, i rarely watch it and am very much against it getting any preferential treatment which might impact international cricket, however it exists, its not going to go away, the amount of money involved is too much for most people to resist and boards have to find ways to deal with it

and i repeat people are making an assumption that the reason he asked to be rested for some ODIs this summer was because of him playing in the IPL, when he might just have made the same request even if the IPL didn't exist, the schedule that england have for the next 18 months or so is insane and in the grand scheme of things a couple of ODI series against the WI and australia should not be that high on our list of priorities

[meninblue]

Rich, indeed the ECB has rotation plans. But ECB rotating the players and players having control over rotation (which series they should play or should not) is different. Anderson was rested but he did not play the lesser tournaments.

[rich1uk]

i'm not suggesting otherwise adi

the point i have made all along is that given the history and the comments made by the ECB then i dont think it was unreasonable for him to expect that the ECB would have been flexible about it

now we dont know exactly what was said, and probably never will, but i just think the ECB could have handled the situation better

and btw from what we know it was "lesser" games he was looking to miss

[Peter Lanky]

sorry adi but thats a ludicrous comparison

Here we go again. You're effectively saying "I don't agree with you, therefore I shall dismiss your opinion as ludicrous"

[OffStumpYorker]

I can see why KP asked for a break from the tread mill of international cricket, but he should surely have thought about that before going to the IPL straight after the test series in Sri-lanka, which would have given him an additional 3/4 week break from cricket, its not as if he didnt get a 3 month break between the India ODI series in October and UAE tour in Feb/March.

The ECB could quite easily have rested him from the WI's ODI/T20 series, and a couple of the games against Australia (if they play of course) but judging by the reaction to Jimmy Anderson being rested in a dead rubber test match, they would have been dragged through the coals by the fans.

The central contract the all the england players signed stated that if they must be available for T20 cricket and for ODI cricket, and to make an excepetion for one player means that they must make an exception for all players. As I understand it at the end of this year central contracts are due to be renewed, and at that point it time the ECB may reconsider their stance on the whole ODI/T20 situation, and so we could See KP announce his un-retirement (not an unusual thing Afridi has done it several times in the last 3 years) from T20I's in time for the world cup.

[rich1uk]

sorry adi but thats a ludicrous comparison

Here we go again. You're effectively saying "I don't agree with you, therefore I shall dismiss your opinion as ludicrous"

so you are saying comparing KPs situation with that of players that were banned for match fixing as a sensible comparison ?

and btw i dont have a problem with anyone who has a different opinion , i wasn't dismissing adi's opinion just his use of that specific comparison

[meninblue]

sorry adi but thats a ludicrous comparison

Here we go again. You're effectively saying "I don't agree with you, therefore I shall dismiss your opinion as ludicrous"

so you are saying comparing KPs situation with that of players that were banned for match fixing as a sensible comparison ?

and btw i dont have a problem with anyone who has a different opinion , i wasn't dismissing adi's opinion just his use of that specific comparison

Rich, the match fixers example was just to show that fans and administrators of cricket need to take decisions differently whenever any cricketer breaks the team protocol or acts in a way which is detrimental to teams success in long run.