Kevin Pietersen's Autobiography.

[Making_Splinters]

I wouldn't describe my views as being pro-KP, more a position against the way the ECB have acted over the years.

[braveneutral]

I wouldn't describe my views as being pro-KP, more a position against the way the ECB have acted over the years.

Is that one and the same thing? If KP is only speaking out to end the maltreatment of others at the hands of the ECB then he is a similar crusader or is this all for his ego?

[braveneutral]

Yes, he can be hard on himself. Though he never forgets a snub. Surprising given how many there have been.

There seems to have been a lot but are any exaggerated or imagined?

[Making_Splinters]

I wouldn't describe my views as being pro-KP, more a position against the way the ECB have acted over the years.

Is that one and the same thing? If KP is only speaking out to end the maltreatment of others at the hands of the ECB then he is a similar crusader or is this all for his ego?

Not really, I'm certainly not going to endorse many of the things KP has done over the years for example sending messages to the opposition. I have little time for the ECB anymore, they have over recent times stopped acting like a governing body for a sport and become a corperate entity solely for themselves.

[braveneutral]

I wouldn't describe my views as being pro-KP, more a position against the way the ECB have acted over the years.

Is that one and the same thing? If KP is only speaking out to end the maltreatment of others at the hands of the ECB then he is a similar crusader or is this all for his ego?

Not really, I'm certainly not going to endorse many of the things KP has done over the years for example sending messages to the opposition. I have little time for the ECB anymore, they have over recent times stopped acting like a governing body for a sport and become a corperate entity solely for themselves.

Yes. I suppose I mean in the list-making if you are listed as pro KP I guess that is as accepting his version of events and the mismanagement argument re:ECB.

If you are anti-KP presumably you would deny completely any mismanagement of KP by the ECB.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair point from Splinters. I didn't allocate Yuppie because he seemed to be focusing on how badly the ECB was functioning. Maybe the same is true of Splinters. But the KP issue is only a subplot of wider issues regarding the management of cricket in this country.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, he can be hard on himself. Though he never forgets a snub. Surprising given how many there have been.

There seems to have been a lot but are any exaggerated or imagined?

Some are quite difficult to understand. But some are pretty unpleasant.

What do you think!?

[braveneutral]

Yes, he can be hard on himself. Though he never forgets a snub. Surprising given how many there have been.

There seems to have been a lot but are any exaggerated or imagined?

Some are quite difficult to understand. But some are pretty unpleasant.

What do you think!?

You won't get me that easy...

I think I come down on a side as it were and it is not a side I would have come down on some years ago.

I think I understand both sides. The ECB would not see it as mismanagement but the unmanageable.

KP will not judge every decision on its individual merit and everything becomes a personal slight.

[Arthur Crabtree]

In with the antagonists you go!

[KipperJohn]

Not many, if any. on either side of the divide, come out with any great credit.

The ECB had an agenda about KP without doubt. However, in my small experience, that applies to many employers in any walk of life - it's how that agenda is handled and how the agenda is arrived at that's important. And most employees would know that and plan accordingly.

I'm also rather interested in how the employee ie KP (and his lawyers) handled his 'dismissal'. That interests me far me than how people allegedly behaved' on and off the field.

I remain puzzled why KP simply didn't just exit the meeting and refuse to sign anything. If his real desire was to continue to play Tests for England that was his best option. They'd have had to drop him, which would have caused a similar furore, and he could have got back into contention by scoring runs for Surrey.

Was it a disciplinary hearing - doesn't sound like it to me. KP chose to sign away his central contract and opt for a 6 month confidentiality agreement. There was money on the table and a chance for 'revenge' later.

The 6 months is odd - every confidentiality agreement I've been aware of in business has been in 'perpetuity.

Was KP already plannng his book - would he have published if still playing for England (or at least still in the frame? Were the ECB aware of any plans for a book?

In the end the EB and KP made a deal - a contract in fact. And it can't have been under duress because every schoolboy lawyer knows that a contract signed under such circumstances isn't worth the paper it's written on.

It seems to me both sides acted in their own interests.

For the record I'm not on either side.

[Arthur Crabtree]

He was told they weren't going to pick him. They made a public statement that they weren't going to pick him. This wasn't performance related and couldn't be changed by scoring runs. KP was faced with being tied to an England contract for six months that would offer him no cricket, or exploring other options. There seems to be a determination that KP somehow benefitted from being the termination of his contract. But he wanted to keep playing international cricket. The tearing up of his agreement was a response to that being denied.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Until a victim of this "bullying" comes forward, and it isn't someone with 'scores to settle' and has something to lose, then it isn't worth the paper its printed on.

I hope he gets sued for slander.

but it hurt the young players, especially the batters'

The young batters like James Taylor that KP didn't want there in the first place ??

Adrian Chiles has said he contacted Trott who confirms the book's description of the episode in Bangladesh.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Any portrayal of Pietersen as a victim, by himself or others, is totally out of place.

We're all we're neutral KJ. I'm neutral. In by unbiased opinion, I think the ECB has behaved badly and Pietersen has been given a bad deal. My division was between those who feel KP has been given a bad deal, and those who don't. Just because it was suggested that the anti-KP voice was struggling to be heard.

[hopeforthebest]

This is from the mild mannered Vic Marks:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2 ... s-sad-ugly

[Gingerfinch]

You can't fault the timing of the book, what with no cricket to talk about.