Kevin Pietersen's Autobiography.

[dan08]

KP interview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricke ... lture.html

Slaughters Flower and Prior. Surprisingly doesn't really have a problem with Cook.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Ha! Thanks Dan. Batters v bowlers eh...

It's not all that joined up, but maybe the ghost will add that.

Funny that the state schooled bowlers were getting the public schooled batters to take their caps off and apologise.

[Slipstream]

Ha! Thanks Dan. Batters v bowlers eh...

It's not all that joined up, but maybe the ghost will add that.

Funny that the state schooled bowlers were getting the public schooled batters to take their caps off and apologise.

The bowlers saying they deserve an apology? I have never anyone apologise for dropping catches. The most catches were dropped by Prior and Swann. It doesn't add up.

[rich1uk]

D/L would be in a real quandary if he was still here between what he thought of KP but seeing KP tear into Prior

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well, we did see that in the field didn't see, with the bowlers' reactions to misfields. Later on, he says he gets on with the bowlers, and mainly goes for the big cheese.

I imagine we'll hear from Swann soon enough.

[rich1uk]

Well, we did see that in the field didn't see, with the bowlers' reactions to misfields. Later on, he says he gets on with the bowlers, and mainly goes for the big cheese.

I imagine we'll hear from Swann soon enough.

swann's reaction will be interesting given he is the only one with a real connection to the period being discussed that has retired

[Arthur Crabtree]

D/L would be in a real quandary if he was still here between what he thought of KP but seeing KP tear into Prior :hmmm

Tim hasn't spoken yet.

Did Jimmy have to apologise to Tim in Ahmedabad? Not clear how this works yet.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well, we did see that in the field didn't see, with the bowlers' reactions to misfields. Later on, he says he gets on with the bowlers, and mainly goes for the big cheese.

I imagine we'll hear from Swann soon enough.

swann's reaction will be interesting given he is the only one with a real connection to the period being discussed that has retired

Some of this is a bit frothy. For a while the batting wasn't functioning, and the bowlers maintained the team. This was bound to lead to bad feeling. It's the stuff about Flower that really needs to be answered. And the journos have shied away from this issue. And he's in charge of the Lions....

[rich1uk]

I do think there was a phase , particularly around the 3-0 in the UAE where the bowlers were being consistently let down by the batsmen , probably quite a wide period either side as well. so you can understand to a degree some frustrations arising but not to the degree being described in that article, if its true.

edit : I see you have just said something similar AC before I posted that

[Arthur Crabtree]

From UAE to Sydney, the batting was underwritten by the bowling. Easily stats wise. Broad, Swann and Anderson maintained sub 30 averages (and Monty turned the series in India), whereas the batters struggled to touch 40, and were very inconsistent. Including Pietersen.

[Slipstream]

Since Colly retired over 150 dropped catches in Tests.

[rich1uk]

Since Colly retired over 150 dropped catches in Tests.

I've said on more than a few occasions we missed Collingwood so much in that regard and still haven't replaced his close catching ability, and then lost strauss too who was an integral part of the slip cordon

[Arthur Crabtree]

Strauss was a liability as a catcher towards the end. As was Cooky for a long time, though he's better now.

Remember, Cook clears out the slips and leaves floating catchers; it's his stamp. Not all of those chances will have been normal slip catches. For all his virtues, Prior wasn't a natural at the stumps. The odd drop from him off the spinner was the price you paid for his runs; he caught everything standing back, until his last year.

[Arthur Crabtree]

“I went after Prior and said Prior shouldn’t be in that side because he’s a bad influence, a negative influence. He picks on players,” he said. “He’s back-stabbing, he’s horrendous, he’s bad for the environment.“He’s one bloke that quite a few - I could count on more than one hand - have said: ‘Please can you tell the world what that guy’s like.’

“It’s only Prior that I’d seriously have real issues with, because of how he was portrayed as a team man, the heart and soul of the dressing room, when he was getting up to the stuff he was getting up to.”

Love that 'he was bad for the environment' quote. Like aerosols.

[Slipstream]

'That’s what I took him up on in January when I got sacked. I said: 'I’ve just been rung by two players in Australia who’ve been told by somebody in the ECB that you tried to start a media campaign against me.’

I wonder if KP will name names or will it be someone said this to me and someone said that to me. Who is that someone in the ECB?