The actions of members of the ECB
board and Paul Downton, a man in the job for THREE DAYS, ridicule the whole
nature of sport.
Unless convicted of a heinous
sporting or non sporting crime or banned for legitimate reasons, coaches should
have the right to pick whoever they want for a team.
England’s new team director,
whoever it may be, won’t get that luxury. It’s like Manchester United sacking
Wayne Rooney a few weeks before David Moyes took over.
The Ashes was a shambles yes, but
was the fact KP had an opinion on matters the sole reason we lost 5-0? Of
course not!
Cricket seems to breed ‘difficult
to manage’ icons like Boycott, Gower, Botham, Flintoff and now KP but all of
whom delivered time and time again for their country.
But no sporting team gets on 100
per cent of the time, there will be rows and there will be people who don’t get
on with each other. When they cross the white line though they ought to be
united and on the whole you have to say England have been.I have not been KP’s biggest fan for a while now because I didn’t think he was applying his
considerable talents well enough for his country.
But I do believe in fair play, you are dropped from a team by the coach, not by the suits who talk cricket one minute and sponsorship deals the next.
The ECB need to remember that often towards the end of the car crash we called England’s batting innings, it was Pietersen left stranded and having to hit out.
They also need to look at the
comments of Graeme Swann on Radio 5 Live, re Pietersen’s absence from England’s
Christmas Day lunch.
Swann and Pietersen were never
bosom buddies but Swann launched into staggering defence of KP and pointed out
yes KP was at dinner, in fact he was at the next table!
Not the actions of someone who
wants to see KP booted out the back door in the dead of night???
What this bland, monotonous
statement from the ECB does is insult the fans yes but also creates multiple timebombs
for the England cricket team going forward.
For example, England’s batting
woes continue, meanwhile Kevin Pietersen fires off hundred after hundred in
Division Two of the County Championship.......
Alastair Cook continues to
struggle as captain and opening the batting, questions will surely be asked as
to why he has been spared?
Incredibly the ECB have managed
to extend England’s Ashes debacle into the post-mortem.
It is now something which must
claim Cook’s scalp otherwise KP’s KO has been nothing more than a witchhunt.