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

[without a dream]

Athers on dressing rooms. A pretty fascinating read.

Lord’s, last week. Typical corporate function. The Long Room. Two hundred people. Andrew Strauss and Graeme Swann, the guests. Dinner, ask them a few questions, polite conversation, decent folk at the table. Job done. Nice and easy.
Beforehand, a question from a guest as we take pre-dinner drinks in the bar. Can we have a look at the England dressing room? Sure, no problem. Nip up the two flights of stairs, past the portraits of Gooch, Vaughan, Stewart. Through the door that says admittance by permission of the captain only, and into the hallowed place.
Save for the honours board that marks the Lord’s dressing room as special, it is like any other. Seats around the perimeter. Pegs for clothes. Huge table in the middle for autographs, sandwiches, coffee, tea. A physio’s table. Washbasin in the corner. Nothing else. Bit cramped. I point out my old chair, next to where the Big Cheese, Matt Prior, once put his bat through a window. Used to sit there. OK, he says. We leave. I sense he’s disappointed.
It’s what people always want to see at Lord’s. Not the Long Room. Not the media centre. Not the restaurants or bars. Not the MCC committee room or the library. The dressing room. The England dressing room. What’s it like, they say? Just like any other dressing room, I say. Uh? Oh.
What they really want to know, of course, is what goes on in the dressing room. What goes on in the middle of a Test match? How do people behave? What’s it like? Ah, that’s different. It ain’t normal. There’s a reason why the cameras aren’t allowed in there. There’s a reason there’s a notice on the door saying admission at the permission of the captain only. It’s a private place. A place for people to let off steam.
You see, it’s not like a normal working environment, not like a normal office. You want normal? Become an accountant. What’s it like? Here’s Kevin Pietersen during the first Test of the 2013-14 Ashes series in Brisbane, page 244 of his autobiography: “Lunch, no thanks. I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the f***ing Gabbatoir.” Mitchell Johnson bowling at 95mph; 45,000 Australians baying for blood; Michael Clarke baying for blood. It’s not like sitting in an office with the year-end results.
No surprise, then, that cricketers occasionally lose the plot in there. That’s why the ECB tries to put in a confidentiality clause in players’ central contracts. That’s why Sir Clive Woodward got his rugby World Cup-winning squad to agree not to dish the dirt on each other. Not because revealing every little detail paints an accurate picture of what goes on, but because it does precisely the opposite. The juicy bits, the fights, the arguments — they all happen, inevitably, and they are memorable, but without the rest or without context they can paint a totally inaccurate picture of what goes on.
I’m not a violent man. One day, after a tight quarter-final defeat for Lancashire, I took my bat to a brick bath in a changing room after the game. Tried to destroy it, brick by brick. Destroyed my bat in doing so, too. What was I doing? I can’t explain what drove me to do it, except that we lost a game we should have won. Out of the cup. Out of order. Immature. Ridiculous. But it happened and I’m not a violent man.
I’m not a fighter. Never thrown a punch in my life. Never got into a fight. Probably a bit yellow if truth be told. One day, in the Lancashire dressing room, I had to be separated from another England player just as I was about to throw a punch. Lucky for me. He would have nailed me to the floor. The man who did the separating had the bridge of his nose cut by a bat being used as a weapon. This happened, but I am not a fighter.
I don’t rant and rave. Mild-mannered most of the time. One day, just outside the England dressing room, I grabbed an England bowler by the scruff of his neck, and let rip. He was twice my size and, by rights, should have floored me. Out of order, totally out of order. I’m a mild-mannered man, honest.
Want more? I’ve seen players destroy showers, break mirrors, kick fridges, smash lockers, hurl abuse at each other, throw kit around. I’ve seen them frozen with fear, nauseous with nerves, exhausted, bitter, angry, tearful and mad. And you know what? For most of the time, the dressing rooms I was a part of were great places to be, full of fun and laughter and joy. Terrific. If I only told you tales in isolation you would think I was stark raving mad. A lunatic. I’m not, I promise.
Andy Flower, the sourpuss, apparently walked around the England changing room towards the end of the last Ashes tour with a face like thunder. You know what? England were losing, getting hammered, thrashed, their arses kicked all over Australia. People were laughing at them. Whitewashed. Flower cared about that.
Maybe England supporters want a coach and captain who appear unconcerned about looking like a rabble. India’s captain didn’t appear to be too concerned about losing a Test in three days this summer. Said he was happy for the extra days off. Just another game. I don’t think England supporters want that.
I’m not sure, either, they want to see bowlers shouting and screaming out on the field when a fielder makes a mistake. Out in the middle. Everything visible. Stay tight, united, disciplined instead. Flower and Strauss and Alastair Cook spoke about that. The dressing room is the place to wash the dirty laundry, not out in the middle. The dressing room. Something needs to be said, that’s the place to do it. To each other’s face, not through social media. I repeat that I have sympathy for Pietersen’s critique of the parody Twitter account and the behaviour of some bowlers towards certain fielders when mistakes were made in the field.
But a bullying culture in the dressing room? This place to let off steam, to rant and rave. This fun place, joyful place, caring place; this tearful place, tough place. “A tough environment, it was dog eat dog,” said Ajmal Shahzad, a veteran of one Test and 11 one-day internationals. Welcome to international sport, Ajmal. Soon enough, if the gory details continue to be told, but only the gory details, coaches will ask for someone to minute what goes on in a dressing room. Want a normal environment? Try accountancy.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

I imagine they bitched about KP to Bailey when they were out with him, I find it really hard to believe they were sat on their phones tweeting from the account though.

Not sure there's a huge amount of difference in terms of why Pietersen would be offended. If they were deliberately feeding Bailey stuff to put on there or literally typing it in themselves is pretty irrelevant imo and we will never know the truth I suppose. It is still a different situation from the James Milner one for example where I assume it isn't coming from within the dressing room and is just some random person making stuff up, clearly that is less personally offensive.

I guess not. Who's not complained about a colleague away from work though? Micah and Rodwell both follow 'boring Milner' and Micah and Lescott used to frequently take the piss out of him in interviews.

Lots of the tweets fro what I can remember were just playing up to his ego and love of the IPL, not things that seemed to have come from the dressing room. I did say earlier though, that as soon as KP takes offence to it it should have become a disciplinary matter, I don't know whether the ECB ever looked into it.

It's a shame we're all talking about I said/he said though rather than some of the more serious accusations like the treatment of Trott.

You're assuming that it was just them innocently whinging about a work colleague to a friend. I would suspect it more likely that they at the very least knew that Bailey was behind the twitter account and so it wouldn't have just been having a whinge but deliberately feeding him stuff and egging him on into putting it online. As I have said, I am not a Pietersen fan particuarly but I have thought for ages that some of the England team are utter wankers and I think that is why I tend to side with him in a lot of this. For instance it is sad that when Michael Clarke threatened to break Anderson's arm over the winter, I was actually thinking good on you because Anderson is such a twat I find it embarrassing that he represents England at times. And I reckon Broad and Swann are pretty much just as bad. I've always half suspected Bresnan was one of the twats too after an interview I saw with him around the time they were discussing the Pietersen reintergration. I am a bit surprised by the stuff about Prior though, I actually assumed he was ok, he doesn't come across in the same way as some of the others. The ECB really need to get to the bottom of whether the Trott situation was in any way influenced by the behaviour of some players, if it was then people need to be held to account. Do I have the slightest shred of faith that the ECB will try to get to the bottom of it and risk having to properly tackle someone like Broad or Anderson? Not at all.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Here's a good article on the subject. It is very clearly double standards and very clearly favouritism. In the comments as well, someone has put up a bit in the book that says Piers Morgan tracked the IP address of the first post from the KP Genius account and it was from Stuart Broad's house. Still, Stuart said he wasn't involved so that's good enough for the clowns at the ECB.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/it-doesnt-take-a-genius/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cric ... -a-genius/</a>

 

[Bluewonder]

Bullying in elite-level international sport! I've heard it all now! I'm an average amateur cricketer, but I've been part of some fierce dressing rooms. To succeed at the very top of your game, you need to have that edge, you have to be fierce, or you simply won't make it.

Ajmal Shahzad saying it's a dog eat dog environment... Damn right it is! It's that will to win, that serial competitiveness, that aggression and ferocity, that make good sportsmen great.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

Here's a good article on the subject. It is very clearly double standards and very clearly favouritism. In the comments as well, someone has put up a bit in the book that says Piers Morgan tracked the IP address of the first post from the KP Genius account and it was from Stuart Broad's house. Still, Stuart said he wasn't involved so that's good enough for the clowns at the ECB.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/it-doesnt-take-a-genius/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cric ... -a-genius/</a>

Fuckinhell Jay if piers morgan told me city won the title last year i wouldnt believe him
How the fuck K.P got involved with this utter utter **** i will never know............

 

[Lancet Fluke]

Apparently Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith have both weighed in and said from what they saw out in the middle they think it is likely that Pietersen has a point.

 

[DelToro]

Apparently Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith have both weighed in and said from what they saw out in the middle they think it is likely that Pietersen has a point.

Yes but they didn't give examples (well not in the articles I saw)

I think it is a bit rich from Ricky Pointing - a member of the Steve Waugh team that perfected the art of "mental disintegration."

 

[jay_mcfc]

Apparently Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith have both weighed in and said from what they saw out in the middle they think it is likely that Pietersen has a point.

To be fair, as far as the bullying and intimidation on the field is concerned there seems to be absolutely no argument against that. It would be impossible to do so because it seems every man and his dog know about it. Swann dressed it up as 'you got a bollocking if you weren't concentrating' but it would seem to go a lot further than that.

I also find it pretty sad that far too many people allow KP's friendship with PM affect their own opinion of this whole situation. He is free to be friends with whomever he chooses, just as Stuart Broad is.

 

[BigOscar]

Apparently Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith have both weighed in and said from what they saw out in the middle they think it is likely that Pietersen has a point.

To be fair, as far as the bullying and intimidation on the field is concerned there seems to be absolutely no argument against that. It would be impossible to do so because it seems every man and his dog know about it. Swann dressed it up as 'you got a bollocking if you weren't concentrating' but it would seem to go a lot further than that.

I also find it pretty sad that far too many people allow KP's friendship with PM affect their own opinion of this whole situation. He is free to be friends with whomever he chooses, just as Stuart Broad is.

Disagree. Who you chose to associate with heavily suggests what sort of a person you are. If you are not only willing, but genuinely like hanging around with Piers Morgan, then that definitely says something about you. If I voluntarily hung around with Hitler, Stalin, Gaddaffi, Pol Pot and Piers Morgan, it's safe to say I'm probably not a nice person. That's not an unreasonable assumption at all.

 

[DelToro]

Apparently Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith have both weighed in and said from what they saw out in the middle they think it is likely that Pietersen has a point.

To be fair, as far as the bullying and intimidation on the field is concerned there seems to be absolutely no argument against that. It would be impossible to do so because it seems every man and his dog know about it. Swann dressed it up as 'you got a bollocking if you weren't concentrating' but it would seem to go a lot further than that.

I also find it pretty sad that far too many people allow KP's friendship with PM affect their own opinion of this whole situation. He is free to be friends with whomever he chooses, just as Stuart Broad is.

Disagree. Who you chose to associate with heavily suggests what sort of a person you are. If you are not only willing, but genuinely like hanging around with Piers Morgan, then that definitely says something about you. If I voluntarily hung around with Hitler, Stalin, Gaddaffi, Pol Pot and Piers Morgan, it's safe to say I'm probably not a nice person. That's not an unreasonable assumption at all.

Pol Pot and Piers Morgan?

Harsh on Pol Pot I would have thought.