Cricket

[Alex]

I think he will save it all for a book.

[Shaggy]

KP takes aim!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cri...g-culture.html

[captainfog]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

KP takes aim!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cri...g-culture.html

I know he's not a reliable witness, but what he says rings true.

[Alex]

The Prior stuff is what sits most uncomfortably from all that. Cook actually gets away with most of it too.

[captainfog]

I reckon Prior is a right cunt. One of those rugger bugger types you would see at University.

[RichC]

Pretty damning towards Prior it'll be interesting to see the responses from the ECB and Prior over the coming week or so.

[captainfog]

Originally Posted by rcasemore

Pretty damning towards Prior it'll be interesting to see the responses from the ECB and Prior over the coming week or so.

@MattPrior13: After this morning I'm looking forward to reading the full kp book. Might bully my kids into getting it for me for Xmas!!

[RichC]

Ha!

I think it'll be interesting to see the reaction from other players that are in and around the England camp.

[EwarWoo]

Just needs one of them to break rank and confirm and then it'll start coming out.

[captainfog]

If they have any international cricket aspirations then nobody still playing will back up KP.

[Chazza]

Originally Posted by captainfog

If they have any international cricket aspirations then nobody still playing will back up KP.

Yeah as said in the Telegraph article it will only start coming out when they retire.

[RichC]

Oh aye, it won't be anyone currently in the set up but players no longer playing may well come out.

[ChesterDave]

Prior would still be a twat even if he is only half as bad as KP makes out.

[Chazza]

Swann has waded in.

Kevin Pietersen autobiography is a total work of fiction, says Graeme Swann

Former England bowler stands up for Matt Prior and denies there was a culture of bullying and cliques within the team

Graeme Swann led the fightback against Kevin Pietersen’s book which he labelled “the biggest work of fiction since Jules Verne” after the former England batsman detailed a culture of bullying and cliques within the team.

Swann was a member of what Pietersen describes as a bowlers clique, which also included Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Matt Prior, that would berate fielders for mistakes and demand apologies in the dressing room.

In his explosive book KP: The Autobiography, published on Thursday, Pietersen blames Andy Flower for failing to deal with the clique and says anyone outside of the circle was “fair game for mocking, ridicule, bullying.
That’s what those guys did.” He writes he was made a “scapegoat” for the winter’s Ashes defeat.

Swann, speaking at Lord’s at a NatWest awards ceremony for grassroots cricket, dismissed Pietersen’s accusations. He also launched a strong defence of Prior, the subject of some of the most vitriolic attacks in Pietersen’s book.

“I expected it to be the biggest word of fiction since Jules Verne and that seems to have happened. The one thing will say I immediately realised it was codswallop when I read the character assassination of Matt Prior,” said Swann.

“Tragically I don’t think Kev realises the one person who fought tooth and nail to keep him in the side is the one person he is now assassinating: Matt Prior.”

Jonathan Agnew, the BBC cricket correspondent interviewing Swann on stage, said it was Flower who brought Pietersen back into the fold. “But he didn’t want to,” replied Swann, adding to the mystery in recent weeks of who was responsible for his “reintegration” process. Pietersen dismisses Flower’s role writing in his book that he thought the coach was visibly upset when he realised he would be forgiven for the text message scandal of 2012.

The England players had been warned before Monday’s revelations from the book and Pietersen’s interview with Telegraph Sport not to comment on the matter although James Anderson said last week they would not be getting involved in a tit-for-tat argument.

“I think the players will be fine. They have just got to get on and play,” said Swann.

“Kevin has been quite clever because the guys still playing he has left alone and he hopes to get back in again one day. He has picked on people who he thinks can’t answer back.

“If that [bullying] was the case a lot of people would have flagged it up before. We had a magnificent team ethos and team spirit until Mitchell Johnson took his blindfold off and then it all fell apart.”

The publisher released copies of the book to the media on Monday morning but not the England & Wales Cricket Board which is yet to read it. When it eventually lands on desks at Lord’s it will be passed on to their lawyers to comb through before they decide whether to take any form of legal action to defend Flower, who remains an employee of the board.

Prior took to Twitter to say he would fightback after being lambasted by Pietersen as a divisive figure. He is referred to throughout the book by his nickname of the Big Cheese.

Pietersen mocks Prior “a Dairylea triangle thinking he was a Brie,” and a “schoolyard bully who was also the teacher’s pet,” and that he was “backstabbing”. He wrote Jonathan Trott eventually exploded at Prior’s constant abuse.

“Obvs (sic) sad to see the accusations against me this am and I will have my right of reply,” said Prior. “However today is not the day and Twitter is not the place for it! Now back to my Achilles rehab and learning to walk again!”

ECB officials were quick to deny there was a culture of bullying in the team with both Mike Gatting and Paul Downton, the managing director, saying no “formal or informal complaints” had been made by players, although the sight of the bowlers berating fielders was a regular occurrence during England’s glory years.

Pietersen will be doing a round of interviews with broadcasters on Tuesday morning in Manchester before a ticketed questions and answers session in the evening. He will make further media appearances later in the week when he will reiterate his attacks on Flower who he blames for the disintegration of the team in Australia.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain defended Pietersen’s right to have his say after his public sacking earlier this year but expressed sadness that a team which rose to No 1 in the world became so divided.

“It makes fascinating reading,” said Nasser Hussain. “It was remarkable when KP was left out at the end of the Ashes and England fans want to know what happened. KP has provided an insight into the dressing room, albeit his side of things.

“Cricket dressing rooms are a harsh place. It is full of pressures and banter. It is one thing taking mickey out of someone but not about cricketing matters as they become very personal. Everyone has to look at themselves. I’m sure at times Kevin himself was a bit harsh with other players. It works two ways and it will be interesting to see responses from other players to see if bullying worked in both directions.

“All this comes form losing Ashes 5-0. In the end the respect had gone between Kevin and team mates. Once you lose that respect and games of cricket then the wheels can only come off.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cri...eme-Swann.html

[Kenneth]

Cricket can be quite interesting afterall.

[captainfog]

Fuck off swanny.

[Chris]

Swann's a fucking cunt and Prior.

[Shaggy]

Needs the likes of Trott and others to come out and back KP up. Interesting stuff.

[captainfog]

I bet swann made those comments with that shit grin on his face.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Chris

Swann's a fucking cunt and Prior.

I liked them both purely as cricketers - a lot - but Swann is a tedious, grinning idiot, full of "bantz" and all that shite, while Prior like Foggy says seems a total macho rugger bellend. He hates football FFS. And I always hated the shit he came out with behind the stumps. There's no doubt he ran the show.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by captainfog

I bet swann made those comments with that shit grin on his face.

Constantly fuckin smirking about something. Boils my piss.

[RichC]

Didn't he get chinned on tour for being overly mouthy?

[Kenneth]

And the more usual

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by rcasemore

Didn't he get chinned on tour for being overly mouthy?

Who, Swann? Can't remember that. No surprise if it happened though.

[Vermilion]

If it's 'fiction', they are all free to sue KP for telling fibs.

[RichC]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Who, Swann? Can't remember that. No surprise if it happened though.

Yeah, just googled it was Gough apparently

[CJ]

Watkinson left lancs

[Chazza]

Giles coming in.

[Kenneth]

Originally Posted by CJ

Watkinson left lancs

A wise move for anyone.

[CJ]

[captainfog]

On his sacking by England:
"They needed a scapegoat, preferably someone big, boisterous and annoying. Somebody with a little history. Somebody who left colourful footprints on the pristine white carpets. I didn't always tread wisely. I was often naive and sometimes stupid. I was no villain, though.

"I've read there is a 'dossier', a four-page document that lists my crimes in Australia. Fifty crimes. The problem is, it doesn't actually exist. If a dossier did exist the ECB would have a reason to sack me."

On Andy Flower:
"Contagiously sour. Infectiously dour. He could walk into a room and suck all the joy out of it in five seconds. Just a Mood Hoover. That's how I came to think of him.

On the England team environment:
"A clique choked our team... and Andy Flower let that clique grow like a bad weed.

"The dressing room slowly became the territory of the biggest mouths among the bowlers - and a wicketkeeper. They ran an exclusive club. If you're outside that clique, you were fair game for mocking, ridicule, bullying."

On the Ashes whitewash:
"It's Flower who was the problem. Walking around with that 'somebody stole our legacy' face. The environment was horrendous."

On Matt Prior:
"I'm the one who's always been labelled as the uncontrollable individualist, the ego maniac, the arrogant, flash, materialistic South African. But when I close my eyes in the dressing room I can't help wondering why. Every tour I hear Prior getting louder and louder. Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume."

"The Big Cheese had matured and grown too large for his little box."

On his international career:
"I'm not prepared to accept I will never play for England again ... I believe the governing of English cricket could change; I believe it should change. I am happy for now, but I would be happy to come back. Anything can happen in cricket."

On Alastair Cook:
"I know, though, that while Cooky is a nice man, he is also a company man. A safe pair of hands; he won't rock the boat."

On Stuart Broad:
"I'm not sure if Broad is the sharpest tool in the box."

On Peter Moores:
"Whatever dial is in Peter Moore's head, it can't be turned down to 'chill'. The man can't relax. I could never relax when he was around. He was always around."

"He's a nice guy but like a human triple espresso - so intense."

On leaving South Africa to play for England:
"One big mistake was not respecting South Africa and what it stands for. Not respecting South Africa and what the country gave me in terms of living there for 19 happy years ... I realise too that South Africa was my first home and my real home."

On the IPL:
"When the IPL came into existence, all the ECB could see was the IPL's money and its own jealousy."

On the KP Genius Twitter account:
"I was left feeling isolated and bullied, but nobody seemed too bothered as long as I did my performing-seal routine when I went out to bat."

[Chazza]

Twitter

[Buzzo]

Originally Posted by captainfog

On his sacking by England:
"They needed a scapegoat, preferably someone big, boisterous and annoying. Somebody with a little history. Somebody who left colourful footprints on the pristine white carpets. I didn't always tread wisely. I was often naive and sometimes stupid. I was no villain, though.

"I've read there is a 'dossier', a four-page document that lists my crimes in Australia. Fifty crimes. The problem is, it doesn't actually exist. If a dossier did exist the ECB would have a reason to sack me."

On Andy Flower:
"Contagiously sour. Infectiously dour. He could walk into a room and suck all the joy out of it in five seconds. Just a Mood Hoover. That's how I came to think of him.

On the England team environment:
"A clique choked our team... and Andy Flower let that clique grow like a bad weed.

"The dressing room slowly became the territory of the biggest mouths among the bowlers - and a wicketkeeper. They ran an exclusive club. If you're outside that clique, you were fair game for mocking, ridicule, bullying."

On the Ashes whitewash:
"It's Flower who was the problem. Walking around with that 'somebody stole our legacy' face. The environment was horrendous."

On Matt Prior:
"I'm the one who's always been labelled as the uncontrollable individualist, the ego maniac, the arrogant, flash, materialistic South African. But when I close my eyes in the dressing room I can't help wondering why. Every tour I hear Prior getting louder and louder. Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume."

"The Big Cheese had matured and grown too large for his little box."

On his international career:
"I'm not prepared to accept I will never play for England again ... I believe the governing of English cricket could change; I believe it should change. I am happy for now, but I would be happy to come back. Anything can happen in cricket."

On Alastair Cook:
"I know, though, that while Cooky is a nice man, he is also a company man. A safe pair of hands; he won't rock the boat."

On Stuart Broad:
"I'm not sure if Broad is the sharpest tool in the box."

On Peter Moores:
"Whatever dial is in Peter Moore's head, it can't be turned down to 'chill'. The man can't relax. I could never relax when he was around. He was always around."

"He's a nice guy but like a human triple espresso - so intense."

On leaving South Africa to play for England:
"One big mistake was not respecting South Africa and what it stands for. Not respecting South Africa and what the country gave me in terms of living there for 19 happy years ... I realise too that South Africa was my first home and my real home."

On the IPL:
"When the IPL came into existence, all the ECB could see was the IPL's money and its own jealousy."

On the KP Genius Twitter account:
"I was left feeling isolated and bullied, but nobody seemed too bothered as long as I did my performing-seal routine when I went out to bat."

This is going to be great. A lot of what Pietersen says in the Telegraph article makes a lot of sense... And the ECB have not yet given a decent reason as to why he was sacked - so how they (if they) respond to this, well it is going to be interesting.

[Chazza]

Kevin Pietersen autobiography: Why was the whole affair not managed better to avoid this fallout?

Overwhelming feeling of the KP saga is sadness that England did not find a way to bring the best out of a player who played truly great innings

By Michael Vaughan9:32PM BST 06 Oct 2014

I just find everything that I am reading and hearing very sad. There has been so much fallout over the last year involving Kevin Pietersen and the England dressing room, and I cannot understand why it was not managed better.

People will say, “Oh, it’s all about Kevin.” Yes, of course it is. But ask any great sportsman and he will tell you: “It’s all about me.” That’s what makes them great.

I have said for a long time that Kevin is one of the easiest players that I managed. It is important to speak honestly to him – to give him direction, freedom, and confidence to express his talents. If you did that, I felt he was always behind you.

It is true that he has an intrusive personality. He always wanted to know all the little details: when were the wives allowed to come out on tour, what were the travel arrangements? It seems that Andy Flower kept things from Kevin.

That feeling that he was not in the inner circle would have frustrated him hugely. He was thinking that other players were being asked about the team situation and selection, when it should have been him. The skill of man-management is to identify what each individual needs, where he gets his buzz and his energy from, and this England team did not find the way to draw the best out of Kevin.

One thing I learnt with KP: if you distance yourself from him he will distance himself quite easily from you. Anyone who took him on, he would bin, and that is clearly what has happened with Matt Prior.

The other thing that seems to have hurt Kevin more than anything was the “KP Genius” parody Twitter account. Even at the time, I suspected that there had to be some input from inside the dressing room. It was just too close to the bone.

It is easy to say: “Just laugh it off, it’s only Twitter.” But it is going out to hundreds of thousands of people and belittling you. When you finish your career, OK, you can deal with that sort of stuff. But when you are in the team it is toxic.

The England side may claim to have been a tight unit, but during that period it seemed like they were trying to disrupt Kevin, to squeeze him out. They were dismantling his personality in a jokey, immature fashion. To do something like that, they must have felt they were indestructible – that they could get by without him. But they could not. There is no way anyone else could have played that innings in Mumbai, the following winter, to get England back in the series.

Where KP was really out of order – and I do not think he should have played for England again – was in his 2012 text crime. I understand he felt aggrieved about the Twitter account, but sending the South African players derogatory texts about Andrew Strauss, who was not just the England captain but a loyal and honest man, was a low point.

Still, once you reintegrate somebody, it has to be a blank sheet of paper. So from his hundred in Mumbai, to his hundred at Old Trafford last summer, to being England’s leading run-scorer in Australia – I do not see how you can sack that player.

Ultimately the situation deteriorated because no one had the energy to fix it. As a leader, or a management group, these kind of players – the sort who are usually referred to as “mavericks” – are a drain on your time and your resources. In the low moments you want to get rid of them, but it is for the high moments that you do it, because you know that they could turn up and win matches for you. In Pietersen’s case, he could influence a match more with a bat than anyone I have played with.

One of the corrosive factors was the Indian Premier League. From the moment when he won that huge contract in 2009, it changed his thinking. This is where things started to get messy: trying to miss Tests to play in the IPL is wrong. But it is an area the England and Wales Cricket Board need to look at. What happens if Ben Stokes or Joe Root is offered that sort of money in a year’s time?

As for this issue that Kevin raises about the bowlers’ cabal, it has been a problem for several years. The likes of Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad have been disrespectful to fielders. No one drops a catch on purpose. How would they feel if every time they bowled a bad ball, everyone turned to them and said: “What the hell are you doing?”

It was the same when I started with Yorkshire. Some of the senior bowlers were overpowering, and I was not the best fielder. I used to hate going out in the field because I was so scared of making a mistake. The irony is that James Anderson has spoken about how difficult it was for him when he first played for England. So I hope these bowlers know what they are doing to the guys around them, especially the inexperienced ones.

A team game is about being together. When players make mistakes your body language has stay strong. I think the whole world picked up on the way England became a very picky bowling unit, very in-your-face towards their own fielders. But I have seen an improvement this summer, so maybe they are learning.

International cricket is hard enough and you do not need to be put under more pressure by your own captain, coach and bowler. But that is what I feel has been happening with England. The management group should be trying to dilute pressure, to free players from fear.

Ultimately, England have fallen out with a great player. We will never see Kevin in an England shirt again. I think he could have had an impact until next year, could have been a part of the World Cup and another Ashes series. But individuals move on, teams last for ever.

In 2006-07, England lost 5-0 and that was the end of Duncan Fletcher, who could have had a big impact after his reign. This time it is Kevin. The moral is: do not lose to Australia 5-0 or there will be a scapegoat.

I hope Flower and Pietersen will be remembered for all the positive things they both did for English cricket. But I fear that their stand-off may eclipse a lot of the good stuff in the public mind.

Michael Vaughan was speaking at the NatWest OSCAs at Lord’s on Monday. The OSCAs reward cricket’s unsung heroes and grassroots volunteers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cri...s-fallout.html

[captainfog]

Originally Posted by Chazza

https://twitter.com/ChrisTremlett33/...15252488351744

Boom! That's tweet is all about what it doesn't say.

[Alex]

Anyone hear the KP and Aggers thing this morning on 5Live? Agnew was giving a bit of an assesment with KP listening. Said he thought he was insecure and a few other bits. KP was asked to give a reply. He asked Agnew about the Parody twitter account and then stormed off.

Bit weird. Obviously he is allowed his opinion on matters as much as Agnew, but to storm off after that was odd. Clearly its something that annoys him.

All this has done has reinforced my opinion that KP is quite difficult to work with, but he was a brilliant player. A player who should still be in the side.

[Shaggy]

You can see it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0285c9v

[Shaggy]

More interesting stuff here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0285drr

[ChesterDave]

The parody twitter account should annoy him. Have those responsible been named? I don't ever recall so. So much is made of his text message saga. Banter in a team is one thing but to go publuc on that scale from within the team reinforces KPs point about cliques. Pretty scummy to attack take the piss like that and it doesn't seem to bother ECB.

To say KP is a disruptive influence on the team when you have no interest in outing the weasel within is poor, imo

[Alex]

He said he thought it was Swann and Anderson didnt he?