Whatever Pietersen was, he's a gifted cricketer and had no reason to be treated the way he was, especially after Strauss took over. And Strauss shouldn't have been allowed to take up the helm of English cricket when he's clearly someone that's happy to swear on public television about a fellow player, regardless of the situation. That's just not on.
The current culture of the team is a total lads culture, out on the lash, bar brawls, and then on the field the team still falls apart at the drop of a hat when batting. The test team only succeed if Cook and Root produce, and if they don't, then it's totally down to the two main bowlers, Anderson and Broad, to pull them out of the mire. Their last few tests have seen some improvement, but these conditions completely favour Anderson and Broad, and definitely don't favour India.
The Ashes tour in Australia recently was a sorry affair, with England literally being spanked out of the country, and their off-field antics weren't great there either, what with the Jonny Bairstow late-night drinking headbutting incident, numerous curfew breaches, and mired with Ben Stokes over here street fighting. Sure, the Bairstow incident was all smoke and mirrors, but the fact that they were out past curfew drinking and then this supposedly happened doesn't look good.
As for the white ball team, they're finding success because the attitude is "whatever happens happens, just go out there and hit and we'll see how the game develops". This has worked quite well for them recently, but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong pretty spectacularly. When it comes down to it, in this format most of the players don't play to the conditions when things start to fall apart. I've seen that so many times recently. It just so happens that the times that they have succeeded far outweigh the times where they haven't.
Maybe the new "Strauss-created 100-ball format" will be a turning point. NOT!
