Was it right to drop Pietersen?
Big sporting news this morning was the decision by a panel representing the England and Wales Cricket Board to part company with Kevin Pietersen. In his Test career Pietersen has scored 8,181 runs at an average of 47 in 104 Tests, which is pretty outstanding – certainly compared with other current England batsmen. And at 33 he’s probably still got a few years of international cricket in him. Can England really afford to cast him aside just because some of his team-mates find him a bit difficult?
I’m perfectly well aware that Pietersen is not the kind of player who always puts the team first, and being such a maverick he must be a very frustrating player to captain, but he is clearly also a prodigiously talented batsmen. It’s true that he didn’t play well in Australia, but then who did (other than Ben Stokes)? In fact Pietersen averaged better with the bat than his Captain, so you could argue that it’s Alastair Cook who should be dropped if the problem is between the two of them (as some have suggested).
And then there’s the fact that – love them or hate them – it’s players like KP who are the crowd-pullers. It’s never just been about the ability to play the game. People like to see larger-than-life characters in sport.
Anyway, I know that opinions differ on this issue so I thought I’d try a quite poll:
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In the Dark 
February 5, 2014 at 5:49 pm
Big mistake. For all Pietersen’s ego-driven shot selection, he topped our averages and scored more runs than any other English batsman in the recent Ashes series. To choose to “reintegrate” him after the disloyal txting scandal of 2012 – an issue over which there could have been no complaints either way – but then dump him afterwards for reasons patently non-cricketing is a gross failure of management. It is management who should fall on their swords. Swann said that KP was not an unreasonable member of the dressing room and dumping him and presenting it as a fait accompli to any incoming coach is dirty. Here is Michael Vaughan saying what I believe far better than I could:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/10618396/Kevin-Pietersens-sacking-by-England-is-preposterous-and-we-are-owed-a-proper-explanation.html
February 5, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Maybe he’ll start playing for South Africa now…
February 5, 2014 at 6:52 pm
Not under Smith!
February 5, 2014 at 9:26 pm
A serious question – does cricket allow people to switch? They’ve tightened up on that in rugby now. In rugby, if you’ve represented one country at senior level you cannot then represent another, even if you qualify for the other country.
February 5, 2014 at 9:37 pm
I don’t know if there have been changes that would now disallow it, but there is at least one example of a cricketer who played in international matches for two different countries. Kepler Wessels played 24 Tests for Australia before switching to his native South Africa (and becoming Captain).
February 5, 2014 at 9:41 pm
In rugby, e.g. ex All Blacks were going to countries like Japan after NZ had dropped them and then playing for Japan. I think that’s the main reason the IRB put a stop to it.
February 5, 2014 at 9:43 pm
Like Japan..and Wales? 😉
February 5, 2014 at 9:44 pm
I’d prefer to forget granny-gate 😦
February 5, 2014 at 10:19 pm
KP could play for SA again, but would have to return to his homeland and spend a qualifying period of 5 years (which means he would be 38 by the time he’d qualify).
Another example of a player who played tests for two different countries was spinner John Traicos, who played in South Africa’s last test in 1970 before an apartheid ban, then played in ZImbabwe’s first ever test in 1992.
A number of Scots and Irish players have represented their home side in one-days and moved on to play for England in one or more formats- Ed Joyce, Eoin Morgan, Boyd Rankin and the unfortunate Gavin Hamilton.
Hamilton played for Scotland in the 1999 World Cup and was reasonably successful. He was then a member of the England touring party to South Africa that winter, making his test debut at Johannesburg. He bagged a pair (ducks in both innings) and bowled 15 wicketless overs. Discarded by England, he re-qualified for Scotland, making his return for them in 2006.
Recently, Luke Ronchi (born in New Zealand) made his debut for his home country, five years after playing a handful of games for Australia.
February 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm
More gossip, interesting if true:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/10620654/Kevin-Pietersens-anti-Andy-Flower-rant-was-the-final-nail-in-his-England-career.html
February 6, 2014 at 2:37 pm
“Was it right to drop Pietersen?”
Yes, if the fielder was an Australian… they deserved the Ashes but I trust South Africa to remind them that they are not supermen next week.
February 6, 2014 at 4:58 pm
Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit – Seneca.
February 6, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Craven James Whitaker passing the ball and refusing to tell the public what it should know; with administrators like this English cricket is in real trouble:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/06/kevin-pietersen-james-whitaker-interview-transcript-full
February 7, 2014 at 10:02 am
Not all that many votes, but it’s much closer than I’d anticipated!
February 7, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Which way were you expecting?
February 7, 2014 at 12:58 pm
I expected a clear majority voting “no”!
February 9, 2014 at 8:10 pm
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/09/kevin-pietersen-ecb-england-alastair-cook
Seems it was mainly Cook not able to manage the man who topped the averages. Whose failure is that?
February 11, 2014 at 12:14 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26115751
Clive Woodward criticises the England management. His comments that the coach/manager should effectively act as captain show that he doesn’t fully understand the difference between rugby and cricket, but he’s a winning manager if ever there was one and he doesn’t think that the core problem is with Pietersen’s temperament. Meanwhile, Pietersen is (predictably) off to fill his boots in the IPL, and England will be the poorer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26125307
February 12, 2014 at 1:18 pm
South Africa vs Australia now under way…
February 12, 2014 at 2:47 pm
Australia doing OK at 237/4 when I looked…
..and reached 297/4 at the close. Good day for them.
March 17, 2014 at 7:31 pm
Great batsmen play the innings required of them in that moment according to their reading of the game situation – Pietersen essentially batted only for himself – ‘that’s the way I bat’ aren’t the words of a great player and his average is nothing special or near what his talent could have achieved if he had had good people around him and far fewer idiots in the England set up. He was never given a fair crack as captain and so it is the England senior mgmt to blame for all of this. I wish Vaughan would take over at ECB.