******Cricket Thread******

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

yes but most of the comments are from the perspective of those KP is accusing, so they're either right and KP's wrong, or he's really got a point about what they were like and up to. To be honest, I can only go off what I've seen and I've seen enough of Swann, Broad and Prior for them to come across as complete twats, but if KP's said what the ECB claim then he's had it, simple as. I'm not convinced though.

I dont think anyone is innocent in all this, i think both sides of the divide have done and said things that are wrong. What you say about Broad, Swann and Prior can be said of KP, before the tour he's done enough wrong to suggest he's a complete twat as well.

Interesting i havent heard Strauss' take on this (although he might be keeping his head down after calling him an complete **** on air)

he's a twat as well.

Seems like there are a lot in the team (or at least were) and Flower is a twat, and most of the ECB.

English cricket has caught cuntitess from the Aussies at some point it seems.

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

A little narcissism goes a long way. Should earn him a few bucks at least.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I dont think anyone is innocent in all this, i think both sides of the divide have done and said things that are wrong. What you say about Broad, Swann and Prior can be said of KP, before the tour he's done enough wrong to suggest he's a complete twat as well.

Interesting i havent heard Strauss' take on this (although he might be keeping his head down after calling him an complete **** on air)

he's a twat as well.

Seems like there are a lot in the team (or at least were) and Flower is a twat, and most of the ECB.

English cricket has caught cuntitess from the Aussies at some point it seems.

must have been given some cake from the TMS box at some point.

 

[crystal_mais]

Shame it ended this way - don't think we will see KP play cricket in England ever again. Don't think any county will take him on board just for 20/20's the light is on it's way out.

He had a chance to prove people wrong this summer and play county cricket for Surrey but he decided to be the big I am 20/20 player. Shame I still think he had 2/3 years left in him

His so called best mate said this exact thing yesterday,goughy
He had a right go at him

KP knows he's not getting back in unless there is major change at the ECB, which isn't going to happen. Auditioning at Surrey would have achieved the grand sum of fuck all because Downton told him as much when he was sacked.

I get that Jay. But if he played a full county season and scored say 1700 County Runs, 500+ 1 day runs and won Surrey promotion and a 1 day trophy - that would have been a bigger 2 fingure salute than a book which some will see as sour grapes and others as interesting.

I personally think his playing career is now over - no county will sign him and he will just become a 20/20 whore until somebody realises he is no longer the box office draw

 

[Bluewonder]

My take on the KP situation:

Dropped from the team because he's a complete tosser. He's fallen out with virtually everyone he's played with and was becoming a destructive influence.

But of course it's difficult to sack a man from a lucrative contract because people don't like him, so the ECB have cobbled together this 'dossier' of fairly petty things in a bid to justify the sacking from a legal point of view.

It does make me wonder, though: if they've gone to all this effort to justify it legally, just to get rid of him, he must have been one serious wanker.

 

[the god Gerry Gow]

Have no doubt that Anderson, Swann and in particular Broad can be twats. Let's face it not everybody is a nice guy.

However there must come a time when if you fall out with just about everyone you come into contact with, as Peterson does, then some of the fault has to lie within your own personality.

Loved to watch him play but this is all becoming a bit of a circus now.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

Bob Willis just had a right go at K.P

Its a bit rich from him saying no one took to him when.......
He didnt get on with Andy Flower
Also Peter Moores
The set up at Hampshire
The set up at Nottingshire
And surrey havnt renewed his contract..........

 

[jay_mcfc]

Bob Willis just had a right go at K.P

Its a bit rich from him saying no one took to him when.......
He didnt get on with Andy Flower
Also Peter Moores
The set up at Hampshire
The set up at Nottingshire
And surrey havnt renewed his contract..........

More bullshit though. He didn't get on with Flower after he did nothing about the bullying and the twitter account. He didn't rate Moores as a coach, nor did Vaughan or Collingwood. He left Hampshire because he wanted to live in London and he left Nottinghamshire because he felt they weren't using him properly; i.e. he wanted to bowl more because he went there as an off spinner. Not sure why people are jumping on the Surrey contract ending, he has already had discussions about renewing but I would like to see him join Gilo at Lancs ;)

 

[Corky]

He wasn't happy that Hants got 10% of his IPL wages (that was the cut he first season - no idea after that) . If you play the odd county game and live in West London/posh Surrey, the Rose Bowl and the Oval aren't that far apart in travel time.

The ECB makes England players sign to a county, but most county contracts are not massively long and are renewed annually or biennially. However without a central contract , and with the English T20 spread across the season now why would KP be in a rush to sign one? Just play Big Bash, IPL and be open to offers like any other world star.

 

[jay_mcfc]

KP has absolutely nailed this. More and more of the dossier are being proven to be either futile or bullshit. Alec Stewart has spoken and said he told the ECB that Anderson, Swann and Broad all had access to the parody account. The stuff with Carberry is bollocks, as said by Carberry himself. The stuff with James Taylor is bollocks, as said by Taylor himself and now KP has said it was a private conversation between Flower and KP where he was asked of his opinion of JT (unsurprisingly this found it's way into the media and exaggerated beyond belief, a familiar tale with private conversations involving KP).

In terms of the bullying and cliques, practically every man and his dog seem to know about it but it has been allowed to go on by the ECB, coach and captain. Shazhad has said a player was made to stand up in front of everyone at a team meeting the day after a mistake in the field and apologise. Hardly the toughness of International sport as it's being made out to be by the clique, more an absolute case of bullying. If this is in anyway related to Trott's illness then the ECB, coach, management and everyone else involved should be facing some serious questions.

Finally, for me, the most important thing in all of this is the different reactions to the KP parody account and the text messages sent between KP and Morkel. Imagine you are KP, you are in a locker room with a bullying, cliquey group of senior players who have set up a parody account to take the piss out of you in front of a worldwide audience. These are your teammates and you end up in a room with the coach and captain crying to them because you are so upset about it. They proceed to do absolutely nothing about it, with the help of the ECB. How would you feel the next time you went into that dressing room? And how would you feel about the captain and coach who you poured your heart out to, and they did nothing? Do you think it's at all plausible that you would call one of them a **** in a text message to your mate? I would.

I know that last paragraph is very much the KP side of things but I firmly believe KP had no problem with either Flower or Strauss prior to the parody account. I would say the account, and the subsequent sweeping under the carpet of it (just like they did when Swann criticised him in his own book whilst they were still teammates) is the main reason for Pietersen's attack on Strauss. I know there will be one or two other sides of all of this but that is what I believe as somewhere in the region of the truth. There is absolutely no balance in the behaviour of the ECB so you have to wonder if they have simply just wanted to get rid of him since he was dropped as captain.

Edit: Actually I know KP did have problems with Flower when he was assistant coach but I'm sure they were on good terms for a long time before the parody account.