The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[Making_Splinters]

I will be supporting New Zealand and Australia this summer. England and the ECB do not deserve the support after the way they have acted.

X 2

I can no longer support this abhorrent regime

Then you two children sit in your corner, chuntering about what kind of 'regime' you'd like to support. That's exactly what the players, developed though the domestic games that many of us support, deserve. After all, it's fair that they're betrayed and put under unnecessary pressure because of the likes of you.

The entire business is sad, not least because we won't be seeing one of the greatest English talents on the biggest stage this summer, but perhaps after 18 months of this drawn out mess we'd be better looking forward to seeing future stars develop. It's hard not to feel for KP now, but I do believe he had it coming. He can think of the stacks of cash he made from sensationally insulting his former colleagues, and it should make him feel better about missing a few weeks of IPL.

I can't remember a time when cricket, and press conferences in particular, were this litigious. Some of the 'trust' nonsense outlined today has to be cover for guff that they're otherwise afraid to say. Maybe that is the trust issue; the fear that he'd be attending team meetings with legal representation...It would be interesting to know the amount the ECB has had to front in legal fees over the last year, money that could have been better spent on any number of other things. So sad.

I would like to support a "regime" that is professional, honnest and transparent. Heck, I'd settle for one that actually has some degree of accountability. England have descended into a sycophantic cult of personality which has resulted in the quality of cricket played plummeting. Listen to the deluded ramblings of Cook post the World Cup, listen to the non stop PR drivel spouted by the ECB, stop and look at how the ECB have continually leaked story after story to the press. I question how anyone with a cincture of decency can support the state of the game in England.

[Making_Splinters]

I wish Strauss would come out and give his side of the story, but he won't because I guess he has integrity unlike big head. Unfortunately it means that with only one version of events available people take it as read that it is the whole truth which I'm sure it isn't. He didn't even go into much detail in his book except to say that he couldn't understand the hostility which Pietersen showed him towards the end of his captaincy. Remained diplomatic and wouldn't go into the character assassinations that Pietersen loves.

I would be delighted to hear Strauss justify is course of action, because no matter how much the ECB have tried they have yet to come up with a single reason of any credibility as to why KP is not playing Test cricket for England.

[Dr Cricket]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... dward.html
Clive Woodward Attacking the mess ECB is.

[GarlicJam]

I will be supporting New Zealand and Australia this summer. England and the ECB do not deserve the support after the way they have acted.

X 2

I can no longer support this abhorrent regime

I hoped it wouldn't come to supporting Braddin, Wee Davie and Mitch1.

Has it?

Sad, funny and horrific, all in one.




We don't want your steenking batches!

[Arthur Crabtree]

We'll be supporting the plucky Kiwis with more enthusiasm...

[#Brown]

Of course the setup is a ridiculous mess at the moment, however it's also dynamic (to say the least!) with lots of new people in new positions. Possibly not enough, but let's at least allow the first few to get their feet under the table.

No blind faith, and you can think about what honourable, decent supporters you are when Haddin is roaring in Stokes's face, and you're celebrating his wicket with your new adopted compatriots. Like I said, it's exactly what the players deserve.

[backfootpunch]

you have to wonder what would have happened had the guys at the ECB these days been in charge when botham, gower, lamb etc were in the side

we wouldn't have been able to put a side out

their man management of the star batsmen since 2008 when he clearly needed some support after losing the captaincy in the way he did has been shocking, instead of giving him that support they started a 5 year long crusade to remove him from the team

the way they constantly leak stuff to the media that players discuss with them in supposedly private conversations is disgraceful

[sussexpob]

Of course the setup is a ridiculous mess at the moment, however it's also dynamic (to say the least!) with lots of new people in new positions. Possibly not enough, but let's at least allow the first few to get their feet under the table.

No blind faith, and you can think about what honourable, decent supporters you are when Haddin is roaring in Stokes's face, and you're celebrating his wicket with your new adopted compatriots. Like I said, it's exactly what the players deserve.

Sorry, but without supporters, the players are nothing

Who pays the wages of everyone in the ecb?

[GarlicJam]

We'll be supporting the plucky Kiwis with more enthusiasm...

That's more like it!


b@stard.

[Aidan11]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3078650/Kevin-Pietersen-play-England-t-accept-decision-comes-executives-restricts-head-coach-s-role-says-Sir-Clive-Woodward.html
Clive Woodward Attacking the mess ECB is.

He's right of course. Just surprised the DM allowed him to say it seeing as how their cricket journos are Anti-KP.

[Arthur Crabtree]

We'll be supporting the plucky Kiwis with more enthusiasm...

That's more like it!


b@stard.

Comrade!

[Aidan11]

A very good article by Cricinfo's Andrew Miller

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/ ... 74679.html

[ddb]

On the telegraph poll of 24000 people, 87% think it's the wrong decision.

Although there's probably a silent majority or something who think it's correct.

[yorker_129-7]

For me, England have four issues which need to be addressed coming into the summer. These are as follows (and in order of priority);

1. Opening batsman
2. Spinner
3. Third seamer
4. Wicket-keeper (Buttler badly needs a score at test level)

As far as I can tell Pietersen does not actually solve any of those issues. Frankly, the one area of the England team which is not broken right now is the middle order batting, where England have two of the form batsman in test cricket (Ballance and Root) plus plenty of strength in depth to call on (Bairstow, Taylor, Vince, Hildreth, Wright). I do not believe personally that the best course to take is to leap-frog all of them (and I'll add Hales to the list too) who have earned the right to be considered over several seasons for a guy in his mid-30s with a dodgy knee and more baggage than Terminal 5.

That being said, this has been poorly handled by the ECB, and there is one man I blame more than anyone else. It's not Strauss, it's Colin Graves. It was his comments which seem to have left Pietersen feeling he had a chance to come back, and his subsequent silence letting Strauss do the dirty work for him has been, IMHO, shameful. Not that you will hear him criticised by many of the vocal media types, can't have Vaughan and Boycott criticising a fellow Yorkshireman, can we?

But let's not forget one very salient point here which has been missed. There is, at the end of the day, one man who is to blame for this whole saga unfolding as it has. That man is Kevin Pietersen himself. He flounced out of playing pyjama cricket for England. He sent texts to the South African team to damage any trust the dressing room had in him. He moped around at long-off in the Ashes debacle looking about as interested in what was happening (despite being one of the senior men in the team) as a toddler at the Carpet Museum in Kidderminster. He wrote a book detailing how essentially everyone in the England dressing room was personally out to get him. He teamed up with Piers Morgan who decided it would be a great idea to leak that a private meeting was taking place last night between him and Strauss. He rejected the chance to rebuild trust in him through the ECB in this ODI support role.

Where England right to get rid of him when they did? Maybe, maybe not. Are England right to say he hasn't got a chance? Probably. Has it been handled appallingly? Certainly.

What I think is the most depressing thing is what we have seen cricket and cricket supporters becoming over the last 30 hours or so, and it all started with a huge amount of personal abuse I received on the Cricinfo Live County thread for suggesting that maybe runs against Leicestershire weren't necessarily the toughest he'll ever score. Everyone just seems to have been so fundamentally ANGRY, and intense about it too. To the extent where we have grown men, many of whom I thoroughly respect the opinions of, claiming they will be supporting New Zealand and / or Australia as a matter of spite, forgetting that one of the basic levels of being a fan is that you should always want your team to do as best they can. The players and fans who are backing England are totally innocent and deserve better than to see fickle tantrums such as that.

[bigfluffylemon]

84% of those responding to the Daily Racist/Mail's poll reckon it's the wrong decision, too.

Still, the ECB will only listen if it starts to hurt revenue. And given that it's an Ashes summer and the tickets have already sold out, it won't. Cancelling Sky subscriptions seems to be the only way to send them a message.

Regardless of what you think of KP the man, the way this has been handled has been appalling by the ECB. KP and the English cricketing public are entitled to feel confused and misled.

I can just envisage 2-0 vs NZ, 2-0 down vs Australia, England reduced to 93-5 on the first afternoon of the third test, and the chant goes around Edgbaston 'Bring back KP'. Sadly, it's all too probable. Quite why you'd refuse out of hand to even consider selecting your best batsman for a series is beyond me. The Aussie press are in disbelief. There's only one batsman that the Australian bowlers are afraid to bowl to, and he won't be playing.