The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[ddb]

He can say no cricketer was involved but Broad tweeted this: http://yfrog.com/obi0ihtj on the day the account was set up.

It's a well known fact he is friends with several England cricketers, however it doesn't automatically follow they had anything to do with the Twitter account. I have friends, they don't have any influence on my Twitter activities.

Yeah I never said they did.

And this journo has a point:

@sampsoncollins: While @piersmorgan is nuking the KP situation he might as well name the big ECB mole #nobodystanding

[Robert]

He can say no cricketer was involved but Broad tweeted this: http://yfrog.com/obi0ihtj on the day the account was set up.

It's a well known fact he is friends with several England cricketers, however it doesn't automatically follow they had anything to do with the Twitter account. I have friends, they don't have any influence on my Twitter activities.

Who cares who he is frankly? It's not his problem that Pietersen was so insecure about it.

[yorker_129-7]

He can say no cricketer was involved but Broad tweeted this: http://yfrog.com/obi0ihtj on the day the account was set up.

It's a well known fact he is friends with several England cricketers, however it doesn't automatically follow they had anything to do with the Twitter account. I have friends, they don't have any influence on my Twitter activities.

Yeah I never said they did.

But you alluded to it. Why else point out that Broad tweeted to an entirely separate account which, as it turns out, was being run by the same bloke unless insinuating Broad was somehow aware of what he was up to?

[ddb]

He can say no cricketer was involved but Broad tweeted this: http://yfrog.com/obi0ihtj on the day the account was set up.

It's a well known fact he is friends with several England cricketers, however it doesn't automatically follow they had anything to do with the Twitter account. I have friends, they don't have any influence on my Twitter activities.

Yeah I never said they did.

But you alluded to it. Why else point out that Broad tweeted to an entirely separate account which, as it turns out, was being run by the same bloke unless insinuating Broad was somehow aware of what he was up to?

Hey it's just a coincidence.

[Kim]

Well yeah I knew earlier today when I read this: http://j.mp/MXmx7q

He can say no cricketer was involved but Broad tweeted this: http://yfrog.com/obi0ihtj on the day the account was set up.

He also made a mistake very early on - by posting a KP parody tweet from his main account.

[m@tt]

Long post, many pages to read...

What I would like to understand from people who think it was right for KP to be dropped to ensure team unity etc, do you think Swanns comments in his bio were justified? Should he have been dropped too?

And they didnt utter a single word against Swann.

Errr... http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-eng ... 36697.html

Flower was comforted by Pietersen's "mature handling" of the situation and insisted the players remain friends, but when asked whether he believes players should wait until professional retirement to air critiques of their team-mates, he said: "That's my personal opinion, yes.

"I personally don't think that it's a good idea for current players to be talking about their fellow players. The written word does come across very, very differently - when you can't judge a person's tone. It's all been handled in-house, without many problems. Pietersen and Swann get on well, and I think Pietersen has handled it very maturely."

So the issue was handled internally and didn't need to be escalated. We don't know what was said behind closed doors and it's unfair that you are claiming that England did nothing about Swann which patently isn't the case. Had the comments caused deeper problems, then maybe we would have been stronger sanctions.

In any case, England will have learned from that case - it was something they hadn't dealt with before - any maybe lessons learned have been applied for KP's case.

So what Swann said (doubted KPs captaincy qualities), when both of them are teammates, still playing basically shows that he doesnt consider KP too highly.

Similarly, KP texts some unflattering things about Strauss, when both of them are teammates, still playing together.
Dont see the difference basically.

Or should he have said - "Strauss is a poor captain, out of form batsman but a great bloke to go out for a drink with"
Its the truth after all... and he would have said something good about him...

And what about Samit Patel? Its ok to say those things about him?

Swann's comments over Pietersen's captaincy were sandwiched between plenty of praise for him as a cricketer. Of course, that is conveniently ignored.

That said, his comments about KP and Patel were both unwise. It wasn't ok and neither Flower nor the ECB have ever said that it was ok. Following the media circus around it, I highly doubt that another England player will do the same. However, if the ECB subsequently decided they should have punished Swann, that doesn't mean they can't punish others later who commit the same offence. Or as Adi put it...

They made mistake with Swann, but that would not mean they should do another mistake after few years.

Ultimately though, you can't take things on face value. Only those within the England camp know how much damage Swann's book did and how much damage KP has done this summer. It's not about the actions per se, but the damage done. In all likelihood, Swann's autobiography was not damaging to the team as a whole however because Pietersen has criticised the captain and coach, he has possibly angered the entire team. In Swann's book, he said something about fighting in the trenches for Strauss - with that sort of deep respect (i.e. goes behind cricketing ability) for Strauss and Flower within the team, it's a "you hurt him, you hurt us" situation.

I don't buy the team unity thing.

Andy Cole & Teddy Sheringham didn't like each other at Man Utd. They still won loads of silverware. I have found that even in normal employment there will always be someone who doesn't get along with another, but as long as it doesn't get personal, there's no reason why they can't work in the same workplace in a professional manner.

"Unity" does not mean that everyone is friends and loves each other. Pietersen has never been universally popular within the dressing room (Hussain says there are team mates who can't stand KP!) however, until recently, KP has been part of a unity dressing room. They are all professionals, they all respect each other. However, when a player starts (allegedly - but then KP hasn't denied it) slagging off team-mates to members of the opposition dressing room, then it does become personal and it does break trust.

Warne and Gilly never liked each other. The last time I checked, they were a part of one of the most successful teams of all time.

See above. Point well and truly missed.

It is, but KP is a box office draw. One of our top players (who else can boast three test double centuries?). A case of cutting off the nose to spite the face.

Pietersen's ability is irrelevant. In the same way, it was ridiculous that people were saying Amir should have been let off because he was young and talented. And considering that the ECB gave Pietersen plenty of time to do what was asked of him, you could say that it was Pietersen who cut off the ECB's nose.

KP had issues with Flower and Strauss from what is being written. I think the "SMS" should be disclosed/leaked publicly at end of this tour and light should be thrown on this. This is not the correct moment to disclose those "SMS's". But they might not, until KP goes to court and says the "SMS" thing is fake.

They don't need to be leaked or disclosed. I don't want to know the exact contents, I just want Pietersen and the ECB to sort things out. Pietersen was asked for clarification - all he needed to do was provide it and with the content unlikely to be leaked (they've been deleted apparently), he could have down played it or even denied it.

Ah, the hazards of staging a series when the IPL is going on....

The WICB learnt the hard way to accommodate the plans of Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and Marlon Samuels to play in the IPL, instead of creating confrontations they couldn't win. New Zealand will also allow any player who wants to play in the IPL instead of touring England in early May to do so next year, much as the Windies did this year.

So, they've learnt not to fight against the IPL, and pretend that it doesn't exist. So have the Sri Lankans....

It's just England who persist in fighting this battle now. Kevin Pietersen is the first casualty, and he won't be the last. No matter what anyone says, KP's absence will felt, so the IPL has already won its clash of fixtures with England in May, as far as KP's career is concerned. It's the IPL's gain and England's loss....

The IPL clashes with the English home season, not with the West Indian home season or the Sri Lankan one. They aren't fighting a battle, they are playing Tests when they can. If the IPL was held in October, we would be able to accommodate it easily. But it isn't and the ECB have to protect the English game, they can't reduce the number of home internationals for the IPL.

I think the SMS contents can be traced by operator even if the person has deleted them Is that the way telecom operators work in UK given permission from courts to trace sms

Not needed. The ECB would have taken his word has he given it. They didn't ask for conclusive proof to prove beyond all reasonable doubt.

its about man-management. ECB, Strauss and Flower are incapable of managing elements like KP.

Pietersen has been a successful part of this dressing room for a number of years. He's always been high maintenance and they've been fine with him and managed him accordingly. I think it's unfair to say they are "incapable" - it's more that they have their limits of what they can put up with.

So KP and Strauss have a rift. KP plays one of the all time great knocks while Strauss cant buy a run for toffee against good bowling. And who is dropped? KP? Doesnt really make any sense to me. These rigid "principles" are not going to help the cause.
If the "principle" that player is dropped because he refuses to reveal the content of a PRIVATE message, then thats not a very good one.
In that case, why not check the phones of all the players? Why only KP? Because of a report by Daily Fail? Give me a break. And if they go solely on that report, then that report also said that the SA manager denied that the messages were "unflattering". So why not trust him? Why only read half of the report? Selective amnesia?

Sorry Shanks, but to repeat what I said further up this post, you've massively missed the point.

Their individual scores in the second Test are irrelevant. We know Strauss is merely a good player whilst Pietersen is an outrageous talent.

This was not a knee jerk reaction based on a newspaper story. They talked to him about it and asked him to clarify - to an extent, what the SA manager said is irrelevant (to his credit, he was trying to down play the situation) - the one person they wanted to hear from was KP.

Why not check every phone? Because it's about trust! Flower trusts his players not to be stupid. Like all employees, I moan about my boss but I'm not stupid enough to do it on Facebook or send a ranting email to someone (Not even from a personal email address. And it would be bad enough to send one to a colleague, let alone someone else or a competitor). However unintentionally, Pietersen's texts have become known (if not the content) because he was stupid enough to moan about his captain and coach to members of the opposition side. And had Pietersen denied they were defamatory, as asked, he would have been trusted and the ECB would have decided that though the texts were unwise, the media has blown it out of proportion.

----

Conclusion

I'm as frustrated as anyone else that things have come to this. I wanted the issue resolved quickly so KP could take his place in the team. And neither party is perfect - the ECB has plenty of short-sighted bigwigs whilst Pietersen's personality traits are well noted. And I would have been perfectly happy if the texts had remained secret and the Daily Mail not reported on them. What Strauss/Flower don't know can't hurt them.

The situation was so very avoidable and unfortunately my opinion is that, over the course of the past week or so, it's Pietersen who has failed to avoid his dropping. He may have good grounds to hate the ECB - but rise above it FFS! Don't mouth off in a press conference. Following talks, described as "constructive", he was told what he needed to do. Pietersen is loved when he scores runs - all he needed was to take a short term hit and show a bit of humility in closing text-gate and he would have been back in the middle in no time and a match-winning century would have seen him quickly forgiven.

[shankycricket]

So basically the England team have been f**ked up by a media report. This problem would not have arisen if Daily Fail had not reported about the texts. I wonder how low will the media sink in an attempt to get headlines. Some of these journos love watching England lose, dont they?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Suspect KP felt he was taking too many hits. The leak to the Press on talks was pretty difficult to take. The line the ECB took on the texts in the wake of Pietersen's complete capitulation over the weekend must have felt a quite painful exposure of his vulnerability.

And then they want to know about your private communication. A part of your life you'd like to think your employer can't touch. Kevin probably felt let down by the SA players as well. Seems every way he turns there is a dagger. I'm not surprised he didn't respond to the ECB. I imagine he feels pretty low. He needs some kind of friend within the England set up?

[ddb]

http://theoldbatsman.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... f-war.html

This is good.

[Making_Splinters]

The entire team is not which ever obscenity you decided to use there, the team is not one player nor has it ever been.

Infact contrary to what quite a lot of people seem to assume neither is KP particularly what ever it was you said by all this either.

Hopefully the most important lesson people will learn from all of this is "wash your smalls behind closed doors".

[Arthur Crabtree]

Morris uses absolutely hideous management speak. Doesn't give me a warm feeling about his flexibility toward the players.

[Arthur Crabtree]

On the positive side. Unless the situation is bungled further. As it may be. KP will be available for Tests, the T20WC, and the next 50 over WC. Which has to be a good thing.

[shankycricket]

Well, hopefully, the ECB must show some sense(if they have any, that is) and pick him for the World T20 and the SA ODIs, to start with.

On a side note, will Ravi be picked for the World T20 given his personal problems? And if they pick him now but he fails to recover from the personal problems then is that a valid enough reason for the ICC to grant a replacement later on?

[Making_Splinters]

Shanks, it is nothing to do with sense or a lack there of. The player has been dropped because of issues within the side and he can not be named in any squad until they have been sorted, which means in all likelyhood he is not going to be in the World T20 unless the ECB decide to prioritise getting this mess cleaned up before the weekend - unlikely with the Test at Lord's.

Ideally I don't want to see him in England colours till he has been offered and signed a new central contract.

[ddb]

Is it a bit weird or something that some players have pieces in the papers like the daily mail and KP doesn't? So maybe they feel they can criticise him more?

Broad today http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... Broad.html