Kevin Pietersen: :(

So the guy is told that if he performs for a county, then he can't be ignored. He goes out and smashes a record-breaking innings, and then gets told under no uncertain terms that he won't play for England again, by the man that called him a **** on air as he's now conveniently the new director of English cricket? It's all highly unprofessional to be honest. As has been said, he's too friendly with loads of players in the team. The country doesn't need friendly director's and players, it needs people that can make the tough decisions. It's just one massive boys club and people that shouldn't even be in the team are still being looked after. This summer is going to be rubbish for English cricket. At the moment English cricket is in an abysmal state and I don't see it getting any better.

+1

English cricket is an old boys club where face fitting is sadly more important than talent. Barring the generation where everything fell into place we seem to be drifting into decline with mates giving each other jobs.

I'm fast losing interest in English crivket right now with the way things are going.
 
The ECB is a joke honestly, I thought the PCB was bad but this just takes the proverbial lol.

I'm no fan of KP, never liked his arrogance on and off the field but I feel sorry for the guy. Immense talent on the pitch but wow just wow at what has gone ie being serious hope to make it back into the England squad, rips up his IPL contract, smashes 150+ then to find out he won't be picked.
No wonder he is furious, I would be too. Hiring Strauss was the wrong move imo, ECB should have known about their bad blood in the past.

Odds on that Englad will lose or perhaps get a draw in the ashes and Strauss won't be sacked if they lose the ashes...now that is bloody hilarious.
 
I seem to be in the minority here but I don't think he's worth the punt -
  • He's 34 and a trouble maker in the dressing room
  • He made runs yes, but against Leicestershire haven't won a FC game for two seasons.
  • We are not playing well, but is it better to bring KP in at risk for maybe two summers before he retires or let Ballance / Root cement their places?
 
I seem to be in the minority here but I don't think he's worth the punt -
  • He's 34 and a trouble maker in the dressing room
  • He made runs yes, but against Leicestershire haven't won a FC game for two seasons.
  • We are not playing well, but is it better to bring KP in at risk for maybe two summers before he retires or let Ballance / Root cement their places?

Well, they did bring 34-year-old Trott back, when he seemed woefully short of the task - even levering him into an unnatural position to squeeze him into the side.

Let's not make light of how incredible Pietersen's innings was. No, he wasn't facing a world class attack but 355no, including a final wicket partnership of 139 when the no11 scored 5 and 290 scored in one day, is nothing short of phenomenal. Plenty of other batsmen have faced that Leics attack and failed to score 300+. And it puts paid to any fitness worries.

I wouldn't put him straight into the team anyway - 3,4,5 have done nothing to warrant being dropped. But to have him as a replacement option, or as an extra batsman if they go, for example, with Moeen as opener would be ideal with the Ashes approaching. Who else are we going to bring in to the middle order in the event of injury to the current 3 guys?
 
Agree with cheesyboy.

I wouldn't drop 3, 4 or 5 for KP at the moment but he should be the next in-line for a middle order spot if one of those gets injured/dropped or if the batting order changes. There's no reason why cricketers (especially batsmen) can't play until 38 or 39 if they're good enough so the age thing is not an issue for me.

If there are any issues between KP and current members of the starting XI then the ECB should attempt to resolve those with the help of both parties rather than just casting someone aside.
 
Well, they did bring 34-year-old Trott back, when he seemed woefully short of the task - even levering him into an unnatural position to squeeze him into the side.

True.

Let's not make light of how incredible Pietersen's innings was. No, he wasn't facing a world class attack but 355no, including a final wicket partnership of 139 when the no11 scored 5 and 290 scored in one day, is nothing short of phenomenal.

So you're saying they could't get the number 11 out either? ;) Pus Leics have made 470 in their second innings so I don't think it's moving much.

It's all about Cook - the ECB are thinking long term about him and not about KP maybe possibly putting in one good innings per test series.
 
The England cricket team need to grow up.. as long as he performs on the field get him in the side, we aren't good enough to drop one of our best players for off field political reasons.

Maybe shake up the captaincy as well Cook has been dire for years.
 
Last edited:
Reading between the lines, it seems pretty clear that Cook is the main barrier to KP's return to the side. Strauss was open to having KP on board in an advisory role, the Head of the ECB is open to KP playing again, but there are "trust issues" in the team.

Probably also add Broad and Anderson to Cook's name. But Cook is the main stumbling block.
 
So you're saying they could't get the number 11 out either? ;) Pus Leics have made 470 in their second innings so I don't think it's moving much.

He was dropped 5 times too in that innings, a regulation slip catch by all accounts. KP other than this innings wasn't in the greatest form for sometime, his test average dropped over the last year or so of his career, although he does tend to turn it on on the big stage, which the Ashes is.

The ECB has done it's self no favours with the way they have handled the case, why reopen the affair saying he could play? They have made KP a martyr, when he shouldn't been one. Personaly I don't think KP has helped himself with his constant running to the press/twitter or his unoffical mouth piece - Piers Morgan. I think his return (pre injury on Wed) to the IPL (and the Caribbean) says a lot about the man imo, he should have stayed here for the summer scored tonnes of runs in the county game and made it impossible for him not to be picked if he really wanted to play for England like he claims. But he's a 'gun for hire' after all

Personally I tend to agree with what Strauss called KP on air.

The Simon Bates ourtune is great. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/32720069
 
I think his return (pre injury on Wed) to the IPL (and the Caribbean) says a lot about the man imo, he should have stayed here for the summer scored tonnes of runs in the county game and made it impossible for him not to be picked if he really wanted to play for England like he claims. But he's a 'gun for hire' after all

Personally I tend to agree with what Strauss called KP on air.

The Simon Bates ourtune is great. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cricket/32720069

Wait what? He missed out on £250k because the new incoming chairman publicly stated that if he were to score runs in County cricket that it would be impossible to ignore him as a player for England. So he tears up his £250k contract because he really wants to play for his country again, and then pretty much when the IPL is almost over, gets told that he won't play for England this summer after all, so basically his time and money have been completely wasted. And to add insult to injury, he's offered an advisory position to the one-day team! What a ridiculous situation. After all of that, I can't believe you expect him to stay here and continue playing when they've made it perfectly clear that there's nothing left here for him.

And what makes him the expletive that Strauss called him on air? (Let's just ignore the fact that the person that acted in such an unprofessional manner is now the new director of English cricket, who also kept his job as a commentator for Sky following the incident). Do you know him personally? Do you know the ins and outs of what went on in the dressing room prior to him being dropped in 2014? How do you know it was all caused by him? How do you know that there isn't a bullying culture in place by Cook, Anderson, and Broad? From what we've currently seen, Cook is absolutely impossible to remove no matter how little he's contributing to the team, so he has a free pass to everything. Can you be 100% certain that Pieterson wasn't made a scapegoat for everything that happened? And anyway, a lot of good it all did. Does it seem like the team got better after getting rid of Pieterson? I sure haven't seen them be better since then. They're an absolute shambles right now and are in dire need of a strong, capable player to bring them back into the now. That person isn't Cook, who the ECB seem to be hanging onto with all their hope pinned on him. He's been struggling for form for over two years, and his little burst in the West Indies, against a team that is struggling to make a name for themselves again, wasn't anything to be proud of. He certainly won't do that against a NZ or Australian bowling attack. And his lack of form is having an extremely negative impact on the rest of the team because they're having to try to carry him and they just can't. You need a strong opener that can make a good start. It's just to slow with him and then he usually goes out LBW, caught behind or dragging the ball onto his stumps. Utterly wasteful.

At the end of the day KP's an exceptional player with a strong character who definitely needs some managing, but if the management can't handle that from a player that consistently produces and is currently in great form, then what's the point of having them? Shane Warne was and still is of similar character to Pieterson, but Australia knew how important it was for him to play. They didn't remove him when he became difficult, they worked through it. Andrew Flintoff himself stated that if the England team worked the way that it does now when he played, that they probably wouldn't have a team due to the difficulties of managing many of the players, but in his era they were a team that consistently produced results.

The way that all of this has played out is appalling and regardless of what people think of KP, he doesn't deserve to be strung along, losing out on a huge salary for what would likely have been an amazingly entertaining bout with the IPL, only for him to then be told the exact same thing again and again. It's a load of rubbish and the ECB have a lot to answer for. Whether that'll ever happen though, is another story.
 
He is without doubt one of the greatest batsman of his generation, it doesn't mean I have to like him. It's just the opinion I've formed of KP from his book/Twitter/media outings etc, so I'm not really sure how it can be wrong as it's my opinion. He might be the nicest guy in the world if I met him, but at the moment, it's the opinion I have of him. Anyone that counts Morgan as a friend can't be the best judge of character ;) KP maintained his silence after his book, yet used Morgan (and his wife) as a mouth piece to attack others.

Surely the money for the IPL contract is irrelevant (to KP), after all he was paying for nothing in county cricket, so money can't be a driving force. If he stayed and hit hundred after hundred in the summer, and one of the middle order got injured everyone would demand him in the team (like Bell)
He just strikes me a young petulant child who runs away with his football if he can play up front when playing with his mates down the park.

In terms of bullying I don't believe anyone else thought there was? I believe KP mis-read the situation entirely. Did anyone come out in suport of him?

No one comes out of this saga smelling of roses, the ECB have handled things terribly.
 
Breaking news:

Kevin Pietersen: Colin Graves rejects 'deceit' over England recall

New England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves has rejected Kevin Pietersen's claims that he was deceived about a possible international return, BBC Sport has learned.
The ECB is to issue a response to the batsman's claims after he was told his bid to earn a recall had been in vain.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32752558
 
Suspect Graves won't have technically guaranteed KP a return to the England side if he scored a hat-full of runs in county cricket. He'd have just told him he would be hard to ignore.

So that's ok, you see. He never promised. Or had his fingers crossed. Or something
 
Back
Top Bottom