The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[yorker_129-7]

The only reason why KP would not defend himself would be that he wants out of his central contract, however there are ways of doing it which don't alienate a significant proportion of supporters, make you look a complete tool and devalue yourself when people want to create teams with him in for these supposedly brilliant T20 slogfests. Oh well, enjoy the Bangladesh Premier League, KP.

[Making_Splinters]

I think despite whatever people think of KP and his actions up to this point no one should see what has happened between the start of the year and now as a victory for the ECB or as a loss for English cricket instead this should be seen as a giant alarm bell for the entirety of English cricket, the question has to be how was this situation in the dressing room ever allowed to develop to the point where it has cost us one of our first choice team members?

Does it not strike anyone else as slightly strange that a group of people who preach the idea of team spirit day in day out could be seemingly completely broadsided by this situation?

Who ever is actually supposedly in charge of the side must have badly let the ball drop to allow for this whole mess to even happen.

[sussexpob]

I think despite whatever people think of KP and his actions up to this point no one should see what has happened between the start of the year and now as a victory for the ECB or as a loss for English cricket instead this should be seen as a giant alarm bell for the entirety of English cricket, the question has to be how was this situation in the dressing room ever allowed to develop to the point where it has cost us one of our first choice team members?

Does it not strike anyone else as slightly strange that a group of people who preach the idea of team spirit day in day out could be seemingly completely broadsided by this situation?

Who ever is actually supposedly in charge of the side must have badly let the ball drop to allow for this whole mess to even happen.

Amen

[D/L]

I think despite whatever people think of KP and his actions up to this point no one should see what has happened between the start of the year and now as a victory for the ECB or as a loss for English cricket instead this should be seen as a giant alarm bell for the entirety of English cricket, the question has to be how was this situation in the dressing room ever allowed to develop to the point where it has cost us one of our first choice team members?

Does it not strike anyone else as slightly strange that a group of people who preach the idea of team spirit day in day out could be seemingly completely broadsided by this situation?

Who ever is actually supposedly in charge of the side must have badly let the ball drop to allow for this whole mess to even happen.

Perhaps, M_S, but when you take track records into consideration, it seems that no amount of brilliant man management would have kept any team containing Pietersen together for a long time.

The allegations against him seem to be quite serious and I’m not sure they would have been made unless those making them considered they would stand up in a court of law. If Pietersen were to win a libel action against the press for what they have published, I’d imagine the damages would be huge.

It’s a shame that huge talent seems to so often go hand in hand with self-destructiveness.

[Making_Splinters]

The question has to be why this was allowed to happen D/L, and even if we are to take your view of it being an inescapable cycle then why it has been quite so violent.

Regardless of what you think about the man, the way this has all played out - and in other areas such as Jimmy's disgust about being rested - should be a worrying development about what is happening inside the team.

Tensions will always exist within any side but they should never have been allowed to explode in such a manner.

[D/L]

It’s interesting to note that although Anderson made his feelings known about not being selected for the last test against the West Indies, the issue did not escalate, M_S. This may be due to an eventual realisation by Anderson, perhaps demonstrating an ability to reflect wisely on things, that the interests of the team were being placed ahead of his own understandable desire to improve his average against a fairly weak batting side.

There does seem to be an inevitability about what has happened with Pietersen. Is it bad advice, a flawed character or a bit of both? I don’t know, but I’m reasonably sure that the ECB could do nothing to prevent it without leaving the administration of the game in tatters.

[Robert]

The question has to be why this was allowed to happen D/L, and even if we are to take your view of it being an inescapable cycle then why it has been quite so violent.

Regardless of what you think about the man, the way this has all played out - and in other areas such as Jimmy's disgust about being rested - should be a worrying development about what is happening inside the team.

Tensions will always exist within any side but they should never have been allowed to explode in such a manner.

That's pure obfuscation - there's only 1 significant source of tension in the side. Pietersen just isn't a team man & never will be.

[Making_Splinters]

I think that a someone like Anderson even making those initial comments was rather worrying D/L; if we look back then England seem to have fairly poor track record of dealing with difficult players even the West Indies can get Gayle - a man who actually had a law suit in the works against the board - playing in the side, considering the massive advantages over the WICB the ECB have it's fairly damning to me at least we're even seeing this.

That things were allowed to develop in such a manner should be hugely concerning, as you say it's not as if there aren't clear signs of issues in the past with some of these players so why weren't people being proactive about it? It should at least be causing some real food for thought the way the ECB have gone about handling this, or in reality they didn't handle it at all, they sat back and let it explode then took the easy decision.

[Kim]

The only reason why KP would not defend himself would be that he wants out of his central contract, however there are ways of doing it which don't alienate a significant proportion of supporters, make you look a complete tool and devalue yourself when people want to create teams with him in for these supposedly brilliant T20 slogfests. Oh well, enjoy the Bangladesh Premier League, KP.

It runs out in three weeks anyway

[hopeforthebest]

When you have a barrel of apples and one is going bad you throw it out before it contaminates the whole barrel. Some seem to be blaming the good apples for the condition of the the bad one. Maybe the one looking after the barrel should have acted and got rid of the bad apple sooner and in KP's situation that would have been when he broke his contract with the ECB by announcing his retirement. That was a clear sign that things were going bad.

[Making_Splinters]

When you have a barrel of apples and one is going bad you throw it out before it contaminates the whole barrel. Some seem to be blaming the good apples for the condition of the the bad one. Maybe the one looking after the barrel should have acted and got rid of the bad apple sooner and in KP's situation that would have been when he broke his contract with the ECB by announcing his retirement. That was a clear sign that things were going bad.

When you have supposedly some of the best in the business involved in managing the barrel then the rot shouldn't be allowed to start in the first place. Consider something like the Tevez situation at City last year where you had a player actually living in another country in exile and the management managed to get him back in the side and playing how is remotely acceptable that a far less dramatic situation was completely beyond the abilities of a national board to sort out?

[hopeforthebest]

When you have a barrel of apples and one is going bad you throw it out before it contaminates the whole barrel. Some seem to be blaming the good apples for the condition of the the bad one. Maybe the one looking after the barrel should have acted and got rid of the bad apple sooner and in KP's situation that would have been when he broke his contract with the ECB by announcing his retirement. That was a clear sign that things were going bad.

When you have supposedly some of the best in the business involved in managing the barrel then the rot shouldn't be allowed to start in the first place. Consider something like the Tevez situation at City last year where you had a player actually living in another country in exile and the management managed to get him back in the side and playing how is remotely acceptable that a far less dramatic situation was completely beyond the abilities of a national board to sort out?

Soccer is a wierd world that doesn't interest me one bit.
I'm sitting in a house with an apple orchard surrounding it and I've found that some apples rot from the inside and take time to display this fact but when discovered quick action is required.

[Making_Splinters]

When you have a barrel of apples and one is going bad you throw it out before it contaminates the whole barrel. Some seem to be blaming the good apples for the condition of the the bad one. Maybe the one looking after the barrel should have acted and got rid of the bad apple sooner and in KP's situation that would have been when he broke his contract with the ECB by announcing his retirement. That was a clear sign that things were going bad.

When you have supposedly some of the best in the business involved in managing the barrel then the rot shouldn't be allowed to start in the first place. Consider something like the Tevez situation at City last year where you had a player actually living in another country in exile and the management managed to get him back in the side and playing how is remotely acceptable that a far less dramatic situation was completely beyond the abilities of a national board to sort out?

Soccer is a wierd world that doesn't interest me one bit.
I've am sitting in a house with an apple orchard surrounding it and I've found that some apples rot from the inside and take time to display this fact.

So because you're not interested in it you can't appreciate the fact that other management groups can defuse vastly more complicated and dramatic situations?

[Aidan11]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but will he be available for Surrey now his international season is over?

[Making_Splinters]

The Surrey question is an interesting one as they really won't want him losing his central contract. They've said that they haven't heard anything yet, I'd have thought that the ECB would be pleased to see him making the effort to play for Surrey.