In the preview post of the Oval test between England and the Proteas I suggested the South Africans, in terms of sledging, enquired from KP Pietersen how his marriage with misses ECB is proceeding.
Considering the ongoing influx of South African players into the England team “ECB” should really stand for the “England Wales and Saffers Cricket Board”.
Maybe Morné Morkel asked his IPL compatriot the question and just maybe it ignited the ongoing discourse between Kevin and the Proteas. What the lads spoke about is their private business but some of it was in Afrikaans and all seemed to be very friendly; typically in the spirit of the symbolism of the Basil D’Oliveira-trophy.
Neither the ECB nor Andrew Strauss or Andy Flower seems to understand this symbolism as the “friendly banter” provoked unprecedented anger amongst the hyper sensitive old boys of the ECB, the captain and the coach.
They certainly missed the significance of the fact that KP grew up in South Africa and that he at one or other point played against some of the Proteas on Africa-soil. They certainly overlooked the significance of the unique glue that binds South Africans and Saffers together.
Devoid of context about the past relationship between Kevin Pietersen and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB); and after the master batter’s threat to dump England cricket one could be persuaded that Pietersen is an emotional snot-nose if not a self destructive raving mad man.
But knowledge of the ECB’s past interaction with Pietersen reveals that Hugh Morris and his ECB-chums hardly missed a beat to go about their business like a bunch of professional connivers and backstabbers when it comes to South African Kevin.
The short and the not so sweet is: Kevin’s outburst was not so much the result of his immature characteristics, as the ECB would want us to believe, but was brought about by the almost unfathomable egos that collectively constitute the ECB.
Over many seasons Kevin was driven mad by the childish ECB and especially their hot-headed managing director, Hugh Morris.
This is the same Morris who telephonically fired KP as England’s captain a few seasons ago. It might also be the guy who orchestrated the media leak about contents of confidential discussions between KP and the ECB.
For all we know Morris participated in the social network account that has only one objective: to mock and humiliate England’s best cricketer.
The ECB as well as captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower took massive offence when KP engaged in light hearted banter with the South Africans on the field and through sms’s. Strauss could simply not live with the thought that one of his troops was joking with the Proteas – in Afrikaans (nogals).
To add insult to injury KP not too long ago referred to Jacques Kallis as the best cricketer ever.
Worse still, he referred to Dale Steyn and the South African bowling attack as “fighters”. This probably earned him the wrath of the English quicks that were animatedly humbled by the Protea batters at the Oval and Headingley.
What the ECB, Strauss and Flower saw was probably what they believe to be “KP, the closet Protea”. That is a no-no; an unwanted scenario for a team who owes much of its success to South African born and bred cricketers.
What they conveniently forgot is that KP days earlier took the Protea bowlers apart whilst scoring a memorable century; probably one of the 10 best ever and definitely the best by an English batter.
The ECB’s insistence that they wanted knowledge of the entire content of KP’s banter with his Protea friends, reflects a high degree of paranoia and is a laughable attempt to control every movement of the ex South African.
Not even the South African team manager, Dr Mohammed Moosajee’s – a man with great integrity – assurance that the sms’s was all “banter” and that some of what was being reported is totally incorrect could set the Britons at ease.
Yes, the ECB won this round, or so they would like the world to believe; but if the Proteas win at Lords KP will have the last laugh.
Deep down Morris probably realises that this scenario might see him exit England cricket long before KP does.
If the likes of Johnny Bairstow and James Taylor fails to rescue England’s number one test spot the public and the English media will question the decision to boot KP; especially after he apologised for allegedly bringing England cricket (read ECB) in disrepute.
The ECB might hope that by some miracle this will be the end of KP but the reality is that none of Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara and James Taylor is remotely in the same league.
Those guys struggled to fill the gap left by Paul Collingwood. Without being disrespectful to Paul, also he was never in the KP-category. None of them are even close to be KP-light.
So, and we won’t exactly know when or what because they will find a way to save face, the ECB will have to revert to its knees as part of the strategy to get KP back in the test arena.
A good guess would be that England will not play the Ashes without Kevin. They would not dare because they will lose.
If they lose their number one test spot and the next Ashes England will once again be the pathetic team which it was under Michael Atherton, Michael Vaughan and Nasser Husain.
If it happens KP will be forgiven but not the ECB and especially not Hugh Morris.
Normally I don’t read post on blogs, but I would like to say that this article very pressured me to take a look at and I could not stop myself by writing comment over here. Your article has been amazed me. Thank you.
Thank you; I appreciate.
I see it did not take long for the new forum to attract it’s share of complete idiots. CarlHarrison’s views are a joke. At least with the Kitcheners of the blogs one had people who knew something about cricket.
Yes, and so it is; but here is a real confession: I miss Kitchener and I wish he would return. I will apologise for calling him a computer techie and I will vow to never ever do so again. I will admit that he is super intelligent and a real character. I will even go so far as to sing for him: baby come back.
Kitch does seem to be determined to stay away as long as his privacy cannot be preserved…
Hi LT, how can his privacy be invaded? If he uses a mweb, gmail or similar address I cannot see how he will be more exposed than on Letterdash. The forum is slowly starting to pick up again but it needs Kitch, Darwinia Pauljay and Met Uysh. Uysh is active but not like before and the same goes for Dar.
@TruVanPunt : He stated that he did not like his IP address to be visible to everyone. One of the things that worked for Kitch as a blogger is that everybody suspected he is in SA or a 24 employee, but could never establish that. Now, the problem is that IP addresses can be traced.
I agree this site needs its stalwarts to come back, but it is generally not friendly to conversation, e.g. I did not know you replied to my comment until I visited your blog again.
Don’t speak about debate, you might just confuse Carl’s brain..!
your Mum’s
Nice come back….. is that it ? Arsecarls giving up the debate how typically english of you…
Carl, which drainage pipe did you crawl out of..?!
your Mum
Come on now Carl, be nice and leave his mom out of this.
No Carl youre the dumb ones !We Saffas are only there to take your money you cant buy loyalty Kevin, Strauss and every other turncoat really dont want to be considered English its strictly financial,maybe you tosses should examine your foreign player policy have a look at some of your local crap before you look to buy a superior product,look you wont win much of anything but you might develop a bit of backbone and maybe get a little respect from the rest of the world…just a thought use it or dont !
Buddy, if it wasn’t for Pakistani imports and immigrant Asian women (who don’t teach their children how to shave) getting knocked up in your gash country you wouldn’t have a team. Lets not forget this ‘amazing SA team” you bell ends keep banging on about have never won anything worthwhile, and we have been the no1 test nation for a long time, and until recently the no1 team in all formats. Did you see the most recent ashes series? Did you see us smash India? Ok if you were down the mines then fair enough, but the rest of the world saw and we got respect. You guys are missing the point completely. You talk about respect, you guys have respect but only for being the best no2 side in the world over the past 10 years. You weren’t at the races during the Aussie era and you’ve been 2nd best over the past 5 years since we’ve been kicking ass. There aren’t many good things coming out of SA in general these days and never has been since the gold rush so i can see why you getting excited after winning a game finally. But get real will you. You don’t have any prominent intellects, scientists, businesses and most of all, journalists coming out your country right now – so its fair to assume by the law of averages that being from the UK, I’m more intelligent and successful than you, so my opinion matters more. You probably will beat us in the final test, in which case you may gloat. Until then your still 2nd best, and there are no prizes for second in this game you dick. So until you get to the no1 spot pipe down and return to your gash job in your dead end country. PS. Will you guys please stop banging on about table mountain. Ive been there and its shit
Wow, what a unique showing of verbal diarrhoea; and all I can say to that is that there is no day like today and my man, have you seen the amount off ass-kicking we did at the Kia Oval.
When last did you chaps won a series against us.
We did so the last time we visited the island and we are about to do the same this week.
Oooh looks like I got under this pasty papsmeres skin, a fired up teebag what a scary thought! Listen buddy you stick to fat women and warm beer princess,eat your mashy pees and try spot an englishmen in London maybe you guys are more intelligent then us hence the fact foreigners are picked above your locals…a stoke of genius actually, well done dosh !
I did see the English get smashed in the UAE by the pakistani’s!!! That was quite hilarious!! We haven’t lost a series for a very long time and the English doesn’t do much more than South Africa in any department of society… The only good thing out of your country at the moment is Top Gear… Your sport sucks!!!!!!! You haven’t “dominated” the cricket world like you are imagining! You haven’t been the number one test nation for more than a year… And now your short time at the top will come to an end!! Hope you enjoyed it there since you won’t be seeing that top test ranking for a very long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Herman, the thing that boggles my mind is that it is almost certain that super emotional little brat, Stuart Broad participated in the social network account that humiliated KP, but the ECB does not ask him to name, shame and apologise. The ECB is in a predicament; they want loyalty from the foreigners in the team but they won’t return any. And then they Bresnan claim Bairstow might even strengthen the England team!?
I think I agree with Carl on this one. We were too dumb to recognize KP’s talent and continue to blame England for our stupidity. It is also not just about money! It is about quality of life, safety, education, corruption, BEE’s, AA, quotas etc, etc. Lastly, England did not buy our players; they begged England to accept them.
Geez, this Carl Oke is a real P@&S!!! Probably a ex Saffa now taking out his frustration on SA because he couldn’t get his dream job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. He was probably also bullied at school by girls. We all know the only thing the Poms were ever ‘good’ at was raping and killing our women and children back in the day because they were to chicken shit to take on the men.
Wow, what a knob!!!
You don’t think it is Kitchener, Hilton H or lord Lucan?
Does it matter? They are still worthless pieces of …..
who cares
yes jacques kallis is good, but he is also a fat bastard
Kallis is indeed the best batter in the world and when he plays against England he is also better than any of the oposition bowlers. Not to shabby for a fat guy, don’t you think?
Kallis is not just good… he’s a legend. Kallis is the best all rounder of the modern era (perhaps even in the history of the game). That’s it. There’s no argument – no body has stats to match. 12607 test runs (average of 57.3 with 43 centuries) as well as 279 test wickets. And I think you are confusing strong with fat. How many other guys aged over 30 can bat at 4 (scoring 180 n.o.) and then bowl over at 140km/h? You’re an idiot.
do you not think its a bit dumb to chat about how our players qualify for england when you have a guy in your team who was born and raised in pakistan, and played for pakistan u19 and A team? hardly native…not that you would even know what that word means
and kevin pietersens century at leeds was the best ever by an englishman? really?
retards…
According to Atherton it was the best by an Englishman in the modern era. Yes, I know about Imran but since readmission he was the only foreign born cricketer to play for South Africa. How many South Africans, Irishmen and players from other nationalities represented England since 1992?
at the end of your article your criticising athertons views, make your mind up…
Well Atherton talks a lot; mostly garbage, but occasionally he hits the nail on the head. Between Athers and Nasser they must be responsible for 30% of the verbal garbage in the kingdom; at least when it comes to cricket.
Sorry Carl, but you a bit warped. We all know Judas is a bit crazy but you need him.
Good article, and brings to light all the struggles that KP has with ECB but he is still Judas Pietersen that turned is back on his country. I also agree that number 1 spot looks like a reality for the Proteas.
Thanks sulaiman.
One of the most rediculous articles have ever read. You saffas really are some of the dumbest people on earth.
No! No! No!
This comment of yours is nothing but a loose remark.
Substantiate what is dumb; indicate what you disagree with and why.
Goodness let us debate and not judge.
Not as dumb as somebody that cannot even spell ridiculous !!!!
At least we know how to spell ridiculous!
Well, at least we know how to play cricket as well. LOL
The problem with the Poms are that as soon as they have something good or achieve something good they immediately look for a way to screw it up. KP is just one such scenario.
Last night a watched SKY Sports at 18h00 like I do every day. What struck me as odd was that they started “costing” their medals. They costed their Rowing Medals at 3.03 B/P Sterling, ie., the amount of money put into rowing and the return they got. Never mind the fact that they had their most successful Olympics yet. Why do this? Just enjoy the fact that you achieved all this and stop looking for problems!
The same with KP. They adopted a Very, Very, Very good player. They need him more than he needs them. Yes he is stubborn, but work around that.