The enigma that is Kevin Pietersen

[mikesiva]

"There is also some doubt as to Pietersen's desire to sign a central contract. While he recently reaffirmed his commitment to England in all forms of cricket, not signing a central contract would allow him to perform in the whole IPL and other T20 leagues such as Australia's BBL. It is also understood that Pietersen remains underwhelmed about the parody Twitter account that he feels may have been more directly influenced by some England team-mates than is thought by the ECB."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 81361.html

Sounds like KP wants a central contract about as much as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard want one....

[shankycricket]

Over the last 3 years, the trend has been to give central contracts to the Test XI. Morgan is not even in the squad, let alone XI and he has a Central Contract?

Is the focus shifting towards limited overs cricket?

[meninblue]

"There is also some doubt as to Pietersen's desire to sign a central contract. While he recently reaffirmed his commitment to England in all forms of cricket, not signing a central contract would allow him to perform in the whole IPL and other T20 leagues such as Australia's BBL. It is also understood that Pietersen remains underwhelmed about the parody Twitter account that he feels may have been more directly influenced by some England team-mates than is thought by the ECB."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 81361.html

Sounds like KP wants a central contract about as much as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard want one....

It shows that the ECB and KP have failed to negotiate. So i doubt we will see KP for India tour. Has any team shown interest in Big Bash, which i think starts in December. Now the Big bash franchises might approach him and KP will easily land up with another highly lucrative T20 contract.

He will survive without ECB and ECB will survive without KP. Things are moving on for both the parties it seems and they have moved far away from a negotiation it seems.

[Kim]

Morgan is lucky Shanks but would think its because theyve lost KP and Strauss from the batting. His IPL deal will be a factor as well.

Incrementals are for anyone -Trotts first contract was an incremental - but generally get awarded on a points system ie play x games and you qualify for one automatcally - so tend to go to one day players as the test team has been settled.

[greyblazer]

The speculation begins about KP and IPL, or BBL There was one meeting between KP and Flower and not much is known.

[Kim]

I think its Morgans commitment to sorting out his form in first class cricket - as evidenced by his county champonship average of a mighty 18 from 5 games - that clinched his deal.

[meninblue]

KP might play in Big Bash

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/pie ... 232vf.html

[D/L]

Fair enough, a player who has been dropped so recently was unlikely to get one...

Bresnan got one. However, in Pietersen’s case, the reasons for non-selection were completely different. The mention of the ongoing talks are a bit worrying. It seems there is danger that the decision not to award Pietersen a contract may not yet be final.

[sussexpob]

I think Pakistan are a pretty bad example of your point, Adi. Despite all their ups and downs on personal grounds, those cricketers you mentioned made two world cup finals(winning one as massive underdogs) and when Pakistani cricket was at its lowest point arguably ever, they won the world T:20 championships, with the star of the tournament being the most troublesome player in Afridi(who was also the man who stood up in the final) and Younis Khan, who was leading the team and would be kicked out the squad after the tournament and was subject to a parlimentary investigation about his man management of the team because he was known to side with only a few players.... he also scored the highest innings in the recent England test series as the no hope touted team just thrashed the apparent best test team in the world....

So you could argue that there was serious lows... they lost to Ireland and Bangladesh at a world cup, but then again that was a feat that England would also achieve in the following world cup, so are we now to make the same assessment of England's golden boys?

Wasim and Waqar were legends.... your critique rather shows that you fail to understand the psyche of the modern day sportsman!!

And I am pretty bored of your Tendulkar and co comparisons. About 5 years ago we were reading alot about Indian's bad boy new image. Many Indian cricket correspondants were in cahoots that the new generation had a nasty attitude, people like Zaheer Khan were even included, Sreesanth has played several times for India despite his misbehaviour, Harbi Singh as a youngster was seen as a badboy, Sehwag was dropped and told he had a bad attitude, Ganguly was a lunatic who played 113 times for India, but interestingly he was credited with being a very positive influence on younger players, and for me achieved India's greatest test cricket achievement by leading they to beating the best Australia team ever..... not to mention the guy he replaced was banned for life for match fixing.

It was Ganguly who enshirned a new competitive spirit into Indian cricket, and without him your number one spot would never had happened! I would also at this point mention someone like Arjuna Ranatunga, a player who openly adopted a policy of arrogance and encouraged his players to show angry sides and misbehave. His achievement in 1996 was arguably the most suprising in cricket history.

Good players and awkward personalities go hand in hand

[meninblue]

Fair enough, a player who has been dropped so recently was unlikely to get one...

Bresnan got one. However, in Pietersen’s case, the reasons for non-selection were completely different. The mention of the ongoing talks are a bit worrying. It seems there is danger that the decision not to award Pietersen a contract may not yet be final.

I meant dropped for disciplinary issues.

[greyblazer]

Just a few days ago I also saw an article which said for the time being talks with BBL was on hold. Any more rumours about this villain

[D/L]

"There is also some doubt as to Pietersen's desire to sign a central contract. While he recently reaffirmed his commitment to England in all forms of cricket, not signing a central contract would allow him to perform in the whole IPL and other T20 leagues such as Australia's BBL. It is also understood that Pietersen remains underwhelmed about the parody Twitter account that he feels may have been more directly influenced by some England team-mates than is thought by the ECB."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 81361.html

Sounds like KP wants a central contract about as much as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard want one....

Is there any equivalence in the financial values of those central contracts, Mike?

I reckon, with Pietersen, we may be talking slightly more money.

[greyblazer]

I think Pakistan are a pretty bad example of your point, Adi. Despite all their ups and downs on personal grounds, those cricketers you mentioned made two world cup finals(winning one as massive underdogs) and when Pakistani cricket was at its lowest point arguably ever, they won the world T:20 championships, with the star of the tournament being the most troublesome player in Afridi(who was also the man who stood up in the final) and Younis Khan, who was leading the team and would be kicked out the squad after the tournament and was subject to a parlimentary investigation about his man management of the team because he was known to side with only a few players.... he also scored the highest innings in the recent England test series as the no hope touted team just thrashed the apparent best test team in the world....

So you could argue that there was serious lows... they lost to Ireland and Bangladesh at a world cup, but then again that was a feat that England would also achieve in the following world cup, so are we now to make the same assessment of England's golden boys?

Wasim and Waqar were legends.... your critique rather shows that you fail to understand the psyche of the modern day sportsman!!

And I am pretty bored of your Tendulkar and co comparisons. About 5 years ago we were reading alot about Indian's bad boy new image. Many Indian cricket correspondants were in cahoots that the new generation had a nasty attitude, people like Zaheer Khan were even included, Sreesanth has played several times for India despite his misbehaviour, Harbi Singh as a youngster was seen as a badboy, Sehwag was dropped and told he had a bad attitude, Ganguly was a lunatic who played 113 times for India, but interestingly he was credited with being a very positive influence on younger players, and for me achieved India's greatest test cricket achievement by leading they to beating the best Australia team ever..... not to mention the guy he replaced was banned for life for match fixing.

It was Ganguly who enshirned a new competitive spirit into Indian cricket, and without him your number one spot would never had happened! I would also at this point mention someone like Arjuna Ranatunga, a player who openly adopted a policy of arrogance and encouraged his players to show angry sides and misbehave. His achievement in 1996 was arguably the most suprising in cricket history.

Good players and awkward personalities go hand in hand

In 92 the battle between Akram and Younis reached its peak. Younis even said if Akram was in the side I would never play.Well they took all their frustration on a team called England. Most people remember both for their performance in that series.

[meninblue]

"There is also some doubt as to Pietersen's desire to sign a central contract. While he recently reaffirmed his commitment to England in all forms of cricket, not signing a central contract would allow him to perform in the whole IPL and other T20 leagues such as Australia's BBL. It is also understood that Pietersen remains underwhelmed about the parody Twitter account that he feels may have been more directly influenced by some England team-mates than is thought by the ECB."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 81361.html

Sounds like KP wants a central contract about as much as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieran Pollard want one....

Is there any equivalence in the financial values of those central contracts, Mike?

I reckon, with Pietersen, we may be talking slightly more money.

Well, it is KP's decision to go for money and how much to go for. It's his life. He is not the first cricketer to do so and won't be the last. As long as he is one of the best T20 cricketer he will earn many more such contracts. Also, ECB have their own goals. So one can't blame them doing their duties as well.

[sussexpob]

In 92 the battle between Akram and Younis reached its peak. Younis even said if Akram was in the side I would never play.Well they took all their frustration on a team called England. Most people remember both for their performance in that series.

There was a series before the 1992 world cup, maybe 90 or 91, when they both took apart a good West Indian side too.... I mean at the end of the day, personal disagreements aside, those two hated each other and arguably played in some of the most fractious and poisonous atmosphere's in test history.... they retired with 800 wickets @ 23 runs between them(PLAYING ON SUB CONTINENTAL SLOW DUST BOWLS MOSTLY!!!) and a world cup in the back pocket....

This idea that team unity = performance is simply a myth.... who is to say that these two werent fired up and were driven to beat each other? Judging on Mike Holding words, the old West Indians didnt get on that well, and the pace attack digged seriously deep to get one over their rivals in the team!!! In the environment of test cricket, you are always fighting against the people ready to replace you as much as the batsman at the other end.