Guest blogger Tom Huelin wrote for the Middle Stump a couple of years ago, when these pages first arrived on your phone, tablet or laptop. Since then he has gone on to far finer things, but has always been an avid fan of the Stump. So it gives me great pleasure to welcome Tom's words of wisdom back on to the pages, as he looks at THAT book, the dossier that's errrr not a dossier and some David Brent style management gobble-de-gook from the ECB. Read on...
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KP in text mode |
"It's
not like he's beaten up any seals or killed a panda."
There
are few fairer, more respected voices in English
cricket than ESPNCricinfo's, George Dobell. So when he suggests
that Kevin Pietersen might have been harshly dealt with, as he
did on BBC Radio 5Live on Tuesday, we really ought to pause for
thought.
It’s
been a wild old week for English cricket, and Dobell’s metaphor is not a million
miles away from how people probably feel about English cricket right now.
Emotions have been beaten up; our love for the sport has
died a little bit.
We've
read Pietersen’s book, or at least we’ve heard all the
juicy bits from the maelstrom that has engulfed the back
pages this week - Pietersen and his publishers couldn't have paid
for better publicity. We've read the dossier-that-is-definitely-not-a-dossier;
a faceless ECB document which quotes all
of Pietersen's 'crimes' during last
winters’ Ashes.
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In the English Civil War you need a Dobell Peace Prize winner |
Pietersen’s claims
of bullying within the England team, of cliques in the dressing room, of a
fractious relationship between England’s highest run-scorer in history and his
head coach Andy Flower, should really come as no surprise given the whispers
around the national team for much of the last year. And yet this week has
still been shocking for all English cricket fans, and whether we
write, broadcast, photograph, watch or just plain moan about English
cricket, we must all still regard ourselves as fans.
The
ECB has responded to Pietersen’s book this week
by inviting more ridicule onto the organisation; leaking a
copy of said dossier-that’s-not to the media, before hastily
re-contextualising the document as a “Privileged legal document produced by the
ECB’s lawyers compiling information as part of the ECB’s internal due diligence
ahead of the release of the Kevin Pietersen book.”
The
work experience lad in the Office might expect to have his performance
monitored in this way, having his every indiscretion logged under the
watchful gaze of his manager, but not England's highest ever run scorer,
surely?
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"What do you mean, it's not a fucking dossier?" |
Why
was the ECB logging Pietersen's every move from the start of the
series anyway? Presumably he was the only one afforded such treatment in
the England camp – at least we now know what the plethora of back
room staff did with their time in Australia.
To
quote more David Brent-esque business speak, Pietersen appears to
have been “managed out” of the organisation. The powers that be wanted rid of
him, therefore they logged every minor indiscretion – whistling, looking at his
watch, gazing out of a window – so that when the lawyers came along to
prepare Pietersen’s severance package, they at least had something
tangible to work with.
Tangible…Tenuous…Close
enough.
It’s
easy to see why Pietersen might be hard to manage. To the
outside world at least, Pietersen appears arrogant,
needy and opinionated, yet aren’t these the qualities
(fallibilities?) that all great sportspeople possess?
It’s
difficult not to draw similarities between Pietersen's book and the publication
this week of another great sportsman’s autobiography – former Manchester United
midfielder Roy Keane. Here is another genius, as successful as any player in
the world, but seemingly a nightmare to manage.
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Roy's Keen... |
But
Keane was manageable – for a while at least, and so too was (is) Pietersen. Michael
Vaughan, the first man to captain Pietersen in an England dressing-room,
revealed in the Telegraph this week. “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.”
Plenty
will tell you that Pietersen was a divisive figure in the dressing
room, that he was too much hard work, that his ego was too big and that,
ultimately, it was easier to continue without him. But isn’t that what we
expect of the best sportspeople in the world? One wouldn’t expect Cristiano Ronaldo
to be the easiest player to get along with, but somehow he gets by, with a
little help, or not, from his friends.
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Flower tells KP he is rooming with Matt Prior on tour! |
Ultimately
cricket, like all sport, is about entertainment. If England had a ready-made
superstar to drop in Pietersen’s place, fair enough, but that’s just not
the case. Players of Pietersen’s ilk are a rare breed. You’re better
off harnessing that talent while you’re lucky enough to have them at your
disposal, rather than casting them off to the margins.
Sadly
for Pietersen, and for the England fans that pay to watch the
best players available appearing for their country, it’s almost impossible to
see a way back from this. Even the most reasoned voices in cricket will find
that a bitter pill to swallow.
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