The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[Arthur Crabtree]

Presumably he said KP is from Durban because it is a bit further away than Pietermaritzburg.

[m@tt]

I think you get quite a lot of Daily Mail types on the BBC. The view on other sites seems to be more balanced.

With these sorts of stories, a crowd of bitter idiots come out in full force. Barely a sensible comment to be seen on both the BBC and the Telegraph. Dunno about others - avoid Cricinfo comments as the tech is poor (only shows a few, no way to directly reply, no line breaks) and suffers from being a more globally popular site, and the Guardian needs direct replying for me to want to use it.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The below the line comments in The Guardian are a bit more balanced than the BBC, in my opinion. On this issue, and generally. If Pietersen read the BBC, he'd retire right now!

[D/L]

To be honest, I'm finding it very difficult to disagree with anything KP says there.

“It's tough being me and playing for England, it's tough.”

I’d take issue with that comment of Pietersen's.

“Tough” is working down a mine or in a factory 5 days a week to scrape a living, not touring the world, playing cricket and being fabulously rewarded for it.

Those comments came across as rather pathetic, self-obsessed and, frankly, quite out of touch with reality.

[Gingerfinch]

To be honest, I'm finding it very difficult to disagree with anything KP says there.

“It's tough being me and playing for England, it's tough.”

I’d take issue with that comment of Pietersen's.

“Tough” is working down a mine or in a factory 5 days a week to scrape a living, not touring the world, playing cricket and being fabulously rewarded for it.

Those comments came across as rather pathetic, self-obsessed and, frankly, quite out of touch with reality.

Can't disagree with that.

If KP was a footballer, he would have been hung by us fans by now.

[Making_Splinters]

The issue here is not the merits of KPs demands to the ECB but how the ECB dealt with them. They chose to leak contents of private meetings knowing full well that the player would be vilified in the media and in actual fact I'd go so far as to suggest that their express aim was to have the player humbled in the media considering the leaked it to Derek Pringle et al at the Telegraph who are well known for their attacks on KP and a couple of other players.

No matter how you try and square it that is not a professional responce to a situation and all it has done is escalate the situation to where a resolution seems harder than it did a couple of weeks ago. Everyone with any experiance at employee management knows that issues are a hell of a lot simpler to resolve behind closed doors when people's pride is not on the line for all to see, it was the ECB and no one else that brought this in to the public domain.

Now it seems that their calculations have half paid off, KP is indeed the bad man in the press and will continue being dragged through the mud by them as long as this issue remains in the press, but what they either miscalculated or completely forgot was they are not supposed to be having a public PR war with a player but instead resolving the issues with the player in line with their mandate of protecting the English game.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Don't agree at all Walrus. This view of a difficult life is too narrow to be of any helpful meaning. I think international cricketers face difficulties beyond those faced by other sportspeople. Even though money is not a problem for cricketers, I don't envy their lifestyle at all, especially for an older player.

The press have examine their consciences. If they know what they are.

[braveneutral]

I wonder if he could sue for constructive dismissal?

D/L - perhaps KP was not referring to the job but the fact that it is him doing that job making it relatively tougher?

[D/L]

The issue here is not the merits of KPs demands to the ECB but how the ECB dealt with them...

Yes, to have deliberately put the issue into the public domain, if that is what they did, the ECB’s motives were presumably to gain a negotiating advantage through public opinion. This should not have happened and Pietersen has every right to complain, even though the ECB were correct in not giving in to Pietersen’s demands.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion though, that this would all have come out later and would only have delayed the opprobrium now being heaped upon Pietersen.

[D/L]

...D/L - perhaps KP was not referring to the job but the fact that it is him doing that job making it relatively tougher?

I took him at his word, bn. He said it’s “It's tough being me and playing for England, it's tough.”

Whatever “tone of voice” you attribute to a piece of written speech, this one does seem rather pathetic, out of touch with reality and not a little self-obsessed.

[Making_Splinters]

The issue here is not the merits of KPs demands to the ECB but how the ECB dealt with them...

Yes, to have deliberately put the issue into the public domain, if that is what they did, the ECB’s motives were presumably to gain a negotiating advantage through public opinion. This should not have happened and Pietersen has every right to complain, even though the ECB were correct in not giving in to Pietersen’s demands.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion though, that this would all have come out later and would only have delayed the opprobrium now being heaped upon Pietersen.

Perhaps D/L but I think the difference between all this coming out when the parties had concluded their talks and moved on and one party leaking it while any talks were still on going is fairly stark and also that the current situation is a direct product of those decisions.

[braveneutral]

I see them not as two separate assertions, but as one. Of course with the results driven nature of sport these days, he could be seen to have a very taxing (no pun intended) job.

[from_the_stands]

The ECB should sell KP back to South Africa, unless of course Mancini wants him at Man City!

[OffStumpYorker]

In the end this is KP's choice, if he decides to retire so be it, the Individual is not bigger than the team.

To me this just seems like KP trying to get a bargaining position over next years IPL, one would hope the ECB wouldnt back down as this would set a precident for all the players who want to be in the IPL such that they at the start of the summer we'll be putting out a second or third string team, with those players that are selected getting thrown on one side when the 'stars' come back from the IPL.

This leads to Chaos, and the revolving door selection policy we had before central contracts.

[hopeforthebest]

His comment that his issues in the "dressing room" are more concerning to me. What does that mean and what effect is it having on the other players? This problem with KP should be dealt with immediately, even before the next test. The ECB should take the initiative and not wait for KP to make all the running in the public domain, even if it comes to not selecting him for the last test.