The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[meninblue]

Practically life has moved on for England when he was not there for ODI series. In fact they won it 4-0. England has enough quality players to stand on their own in battign, bowling and fielding skillsets. It is not that England will never win a test match without KP. They will win, i bet. It is not that England are like WestIndies or some other weaker team who rely on one and only one cricketer to win a test. Cook, Struass, Trott and Bell are quality test match players. Anderson, Swann and Broad are match winners. Together with a settled team they will perform as good or much better. As for KP's replacement, it will take time and ECB know it if we know it. Fans on forums including me want a team of my own with players of my choice. IMO ECB have a better vision about English cricket than we have commenting form our home or office. The decision they have taken is not for funs sake. There is something which made them take the decision.

[OffStumpYorker]

as no-one has said what the content of these texts were/are theres a lot of supposition around this, they must have stepped over the mark in some way and probably cannot be viewed as 'Banter' as the SA team management would have you beleive.

It was probably right to give KP some space from the team and visa versa, so that they can all kiss and make up after the series is over.

[D/L]

...the ECB, imo, are harshly going after anyone who compromises their revenue incomes by going to a competitor...its about setting precedents for the future and the harshness they have employed speaks volumes of how paranoid they are about IPL. They have a reason to be, but this isnt the way to do it!

That may be true of the ECB's strategy re the IPL (personally, I doubt it), but if the allegations in the press about the nature of the insults are true (would they risk a libel action unless they were fairly sure of their facts and could prove them in a court of law?), it seems, given Pietersen's refusal to apologise, there was no other course of action available to the ECB.

[ddb]

The Swann thing is a complete red herring.

They are desperate coz it's 'sink or Swann' for them.

Who's desperate? It's a debate on a cricket forum.

Desperation is probably the one who is calling out personality disorders for people they don't know.

[ddb]

Practically life has moved on for England when he was not there for ODI series. In fact they won it 4-0. England has enough quality players to stand on their own in battign, bowling and fielding skillsets. It is not that England will never win a test match without KP. They will win, i bet. It is not that England are like WestIndies or some other weaker team who rely on one and only one cricketer to win a test. Cook, Struass, Trott and Bell are quality test match players. Anderson, Swann and Broad are match winners. Together with a settled team they will perform as good or much better. As for KP's replacement, it will take time and ECB know it if we know it. Fans on forums including me want a team of my own with players of my choice. IMO ECB have a better vision about English cricket than we have commenting form our home or office. The decision they have taken is not for funs sake. There is something which made them take the decision.

Long term I can buy that England could get stronger. For Thursday, no chance. You named 3 bowlers who are matchwinners, funnily enough no batsmen. Without his innings in SL or in this series it is possible that England would have lost 7 tests in 10 rather than 5. But that gets away from the point that dropping him under the reason of texts doesn't seem right, however good/bad he is.

[meninblue]

Practically life has moved on for England when he was not there for ODI series. In fact they won it 4-0. England has enough quality players to stand on their own in battign, bowling and fielding skillsets. It is not that England will never win a test match without KP. They will win, i bet. It is not that England are like WestIndies or some other weaker team who rely on one and only one cricketer to win a test. Cook, Struass, Trott and Bell are quality test match players. Anderson, Swann and Broad are match winners. Together with a settled team they will perform as good or much better. As for KP's replacement, it will take time and ECB know it if we know it. Fans on forums including me want a team of my own with players of my choice. IMO ECB have a better vision about English cricket than we have commenting form our home or office. The decision they have taken is not for funs sake. There is something which made them take the decision.

Long term I can buy that England could get stronger. For Thursday, no chance. You named 3 bowlers who are matchwinners, funnily enough no batsmen. Without his innings in SL or in this series it is possible that England would have lost 7 tests in 10 rather than 5.

Once they lost first test, they were going to have a tough time. So at this point till KP was dropped they are still 0-1. Cook, Strauss, Bell, Trott are quality test batsman. If you do not consider them as quality batsmen then there is difference of opinion between us. Without tons of other players too they would not have won so many tests. England is just not about KP and thats my point. KP to England is not what Chanderpaul is to WestIndies

[hopeforthebest]

Pietersen would probably have retired after the two ashes series at the same time as Strauss so going now and giving time to rebuild is the perfect scenario.

[Kim]

Long term I can buy that England could get stronger. For Thursday, no chance. You named 3 bowlers who are matchwinners, funnily enough no batsmen. Without his innings in SL or in this series it is possible that England would have lost 7 tests in 10 rather than 5. But that gets away from the point that dropping him under the reason of texts doesn't seem right, however good/bad he is.

England are just getting rid of their Gallacticos early (unlike some teams ).

[greyblazer]

Practically life has moved on for England when he was not there for ODI series. In fact they won it 4-0. England has enough quality players to stand on their own in battign, bowling and fielding skillsets. It is not that England will never win a test match without KP. They will win, i bet. It is not that England are like WestIndies or some other weaker team who rely on one and only one cricketer to win a test. Cook, Struass, Trott and Bell are quality test match players. Anderson, Swann and Broad are match winners. Together with a settled team they will perform as good or much better. As for KP's replacement, it will take time and ECB know it if we know it. Fans on forums including me want a team of my own with players of my choice. IMO ECB have a better vision about English cricket than we have commenting form our home or office. The decision they have taken is not for funs sake. There is something which made them take the decision.

Well England have been winning at home in one-day cricket since 06. In England you don't need big totals to win matches. Ok let us wait and watch to know whether KP makes any difference to the side. You rarely get players who can take the match away from the opposition like KP.

[greyblazer]

The Swann thing is a complete red herring.

They are desperate coz it's 'sink or Swann' for them.

Who's desperate? It's a debate on a cricket forum.

Desperation is probably the one who is calling out personality disorders for people they don't know.

Bang on the money

[greyblazer]

Well, no and I accept all parties have acted like children at times but Flower is the boss and the ECB are above him. The truth is, KP has not for the first time, acted with petulance and IMO and has been rightly punished and I admire Flower for taking a stance.

And I'm sort of glad Flower wasn't swayed by India. And surprised there haven't been more questions for him or the ECB by the rags.

But he refused to admit he communicated with Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers, even though sleuths at the ECB believe they have proof of their existence.

SA have said it's not Steyn or AB.

You will certainly get to see better coaches than the stubborn Flower. For a start there is Gary Kirsten. As I said you can replace coaches but you won't get world class batsman everyday of the week.

[Kim]

Well England have been winning at home in one-day cricket since 06. In England you don't need big totals to win matches. Ok let us wait and watch to know whether KP makes any difference to the side. You rarely get players who can take the match away from the opposition like KP.

Think its hard to make an argument that England are good away from home with or without KP really.

Do think beating a poor Aussie side who, at least at the start, were out of season and then saying this shows we can do without KP is a bit silly. It just shows we can bat a poor Aussie side even when weakened.

I dont think we have a chance in the T20 Wcup without him.

[D/L]

...You will certainly get to see better coaches than the stubborn Flower. For a start there is Gary Kirsten. As I said you can replace coaches but you won't get world class batsman everyday of the week.

Unless I know they have an inside track and are aware of all the variables a person has to deal with, I tend to ignore comments from people about who is the better this, that or the other.

Pietersen is good but, as he has found out, not good enough to receive special treatment.

[meninblue]

Practically life has moved on for England when he was not there for ODI series. In fact they won it 4-0. England has enough quality players to stand on their own in battign, bowling and fielding skillsets. It is not that England will never win a test match without KP. They will win, i bet. It is not that England are like WestIndies or some other weaker team who rely on one and only one cricketer to win a test. Cook, Struass, Trott and Bell are quality test match players. Anderson, Swann and Broad are match winners. Together with a settled team they will perform as good or much better. As for KP's replacement, it will take time and ECB know it if we know it. Fans on forums including me want a team of my own with players of my choice. IMO ECB have a better vision about English cricket than we have commenting form our home or office. The decision they have taken is not for funs sake. There is something which made them take the decision.

Well England have been winning at home in one-day cricket since 06. In England you don't need big totals to win matches. Ok let us wait and watch to know whether KP makes any difference to the side. You rarely get players who can take the match away from the opposition like KP.

There is no denying that it will not make difference, but not as much as is made out to be. When Gavaskar retired few would have thought we could have as good a player. We found out Sachin and Rahul. Players will be replaced over a course of time. KP was one of the matchwinner but IMO England have enough match winning batsmen and bowlers to win the matches even without him.

[greyblazer]

Well England have been winning at home in one-day cricket since 06. In England you don't need big totals to win matches. Ok let us wait and watch to know whether KP makes any difference to the side. You rarely get players who can take the match away from the opposition like KP.

Think its hard to make an argument that England are good away from home with or without KP really.

Do think beating a poor Aussie side who, at least at the start, were out of season and then saying this shows we can do without KP is a bit silly. It just shows we can bat a poor Aussie side even when weakened.

I dont think we have a chance in the T20 Wcup without him.

KP carried England's batting on his shoulders from 05-09. Even this year he has been the best batsman. I don't worry if Flower resigns as you can definitely get better coaches than this stubborn man but without KP? it won't be easy. First up? of course you will find the difference in the t/20 WC.