Kevin Pietersen has quit as England's cricket captain

[chiskop]

Nice post OC.

 

[AirWolf]

Nice post OC.

+1 to that.

On a side note I didn't know Strauss was formerly from SA.

 

[chiskop]

After being born in South Africa, his parents (his mother is English) moved back to England when he was aged six.[2] Strauss first played cricket in Australia, where his parents lived for a short period.

There was a few occasions in the recent test series in England where both English batsmen were born in SA (Prior and KP also SA-by-birth), meaning all 13 players on the field from SA. I don't think this can have happened too many other times in international cricket.

Also have a look at this page for a list of SAs playing in other countries.


BTW: Strauss would be the [-]5th[/-] 4th South-african-English captain. (After Grieg, Lamb, [-]Smith[/-], Pietersen).

 

[Zyzzyva]

Don't get desparate...you have a winning team that gels and is only going to get better as kids are picking up bats (planks?) and playing in the street as we speak.

This is true to form for KP and one player doesn't make a team, as SA showed its about unity and no back stabbing. This guy, no doubt his talent, will be bad for any team or any business he works for.

A bit of history. His allies are Rice and Ford et al. Rice, who played 1st class cricket with no attention to unifying SA sport, thought it was his inalienable right to play for and captain SA on return...a return he put no effort into. He then took his bat and ball to Notts.
KP, when dropped by Natal (remember he was a tailender in a team with good spinners), instead of knuckling down like everyone else, used that as an excuse because Ricey had the Notts contract for him and his Mum had the passport...nothing to do with quotas, but his comments damaged relations irreparably....how did quotas stop Smith, Kallis, AB, Steyn etc etc... quotas don't stop the cream, and enhances the flavour and growth eg Prince, Amla, Ntini etc all top of the tree in their own right.

Then Notts get relegated and he spits the dummy again, captain throws his gear over balcony, but he is forced to honour contract.

England should have known this. Despite Moores being the one to pick him as captain, he stabs him in back when his own captaincy let him down. I think the agenda was to get his other old mentor, Ford, into the job.

KP's wiki page says "Discipline is good. It taught me that I didn't always have to have what I wanted; that what I needed was different from what I wanted."...and "If you do something- give 100%"...both good mottos.
On the latter you can't disagree, but the former is totally opposite to what he does and says.
Of his Notts split : "...I could have done so much better if the wicket had been good."
Of Smith : "an absolute muppet, childish and strange.... his behaviour leaves a lot to be desired".

Wonder who is the better captain and person now.

Leave him alone...he is poison.

When I was in matric we had an absolutely great principal. He expelled the two best girls in English, literature etc - depite being (because of?) ahead of the others in this- purely because they were a disruptive influence on the development of others. It did them and the rest of the class the world of good.

Sometimes (most times) no matter how talented or hard working, if someone at your company or team has an attitude that demotivates and disrupts others, you have to cut them off.

KP is one of those.

Great post. I think one way in which u could be wrong is if the media are over playing things. But KP's choice to leave his post makes you think they might be right.

But i still think all he needs is 6 weeks in the Shane Warne school of conduct and he'll be a new man.

 

[brixton tower]

Nice post OC.

+3

I've always contended Pietersen's argument about quotas forcing him out was BS...how does one explain the many white players still given opportunities to play representative cricket for SA?

That he is talented is under no dispute but what this later controversy has shown is that he is not a leader.

 

[sand_man]

Don't get desparate...

Not desperate at all...

A bit of history. His allies are Rice and Ford et al. Rice, who played 1st class cricket with no attention to unifying SA sport, thought it was his inalienable right to play for and captain SA on return...a return he put no effort into. He then took his bat and ball to Notts.
KP, when dropped by Natal (remember he was a tailender in a team with good spinners), instead of knuckling down like everyone else, used that as an excuse because Ricey had the Notts contract for him and his Mum had the passport...nothing to do with quotas, but his comments damaged relations irreparably....how did quotas stop Smith, Kallis, AB, Steyn etc etc... quotas don't stop the cream, and enhances the flavour and growth eg Prince, Amla, Ntini etc all top of the tree in their own right.

A bit of history.

He impressed members of Nasser Hussain's England side when playing for KwaZulu Natal in 1999; he took four top-order wickets and, despite batting at number nine, scored 61 not out from 57 balls, hitting four sixes. Hussain then recommended that Pietersen secure a contract with an English county side.

Despite the praise from the England side, Pietersen claimed he was dropped from the Natal first team. Pietersen felt that this was due to the country's racial quota system, in which provincial sides were required to have at least four non-white players. Pietersen's view was that players should be judged on merit, and described it as "heartbreaking" when he was left out of the side, although he later reflected "it turned out it was the best thing that could have happened".Pietersen has since firmly criticised the quota system, which he feels forced him out of the country of his birth.

You right cream does rise to the top...

When I was in matric we had an absolutely great principal. He expelled the two best girls in English, literature etc - depite being (because of?) ahead of the others in this- purely because they were a disruptive influence on the development of others. It did them and the rest of the class the world of good.

Sometimes (most times) no matter how talented or hard working, if someone at your company or team has an attitude that demotivates and disrupts others, you have to cut them off.

KP is one of those.

I'm a firm believer in nurturing creative forces. Genius tends to partner arrogance/disruptiveness. Good management manipulates the genius to the benefit of all...

In closing as stated previously I would not make KP captain of any team, however, failure to utilize the resource that is KP is nothing short of criminal. Despite his arrogance Shane Warne was always somehow included and very much a part of Australian cricket, despite his borderline temperament Gibbs is always on the periphery of selection into the national team, despite his larger than life demeanour Botham was never excluded from English cricket.

Where others see a problem the great coach sees a genius, an opportunity and a challenge...

All I'm saying is SA cricket has missed a trick in allowing KP to be lost to English cricket...

 

[sox63]

What is it with really talented players having so many issues off the field? Gibbs, KP, Warne, the list goes on.

But really, as Nasser Hussain said, the ECB had to know a clash of heads between KP and [insert random ECB authority figure here] would happen sooner rather than later.

 

[chiskop]

Awesome comment on the Guardian's story about this:

The first question that ought to be asked when considering a player for England selection is whether or not the player in question is a good chap. Has he attended a decent public school? Does he speak correctly in public? Is he capable of maintaining his decorum in difficult circumstances?

All the problems currently besetting the England team derive from the simple and ineluctable truth that are are too many oiks in that dressing room. Flintoff is an oik, Harmison is an oik, and Pietersen is an oik.

The appointment of Strauss (Radley) is a step in the right direction. The presence of Cook (Bedford) and Broad (Oakham) is also encouraging. But one weeps to see a glorious character like Ed Smith (Tonbridge and a Double First at Cambridge) lost to cricket at the age of 31. Smith was swept away by the rising tide of state school-educated barbarians and colonial boors who have flooded the County game in recent years.

It is time to return to old fashioned standards and old fashioned certainties.

 

[sox63]

Awesome comment on the Guardian's story about this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blo...ommentid=17dcbacd-a858-43dc-9e73-3a15d04af297

Hilarious!

 

[sand_man]

Pompous a$$es...

 

[chiskop]

Pompous a$$es...

sand, it's a brilliant troll - not to be taken too seriously.

A now deleted comment from the same user:

It is quite remarkable that a barely civilised Afrikaner was given the most prestigious job in world cricket in the first place. The word "gauche" is exceedingly apposite in Pietersen's case.

If, say, Pietersen had ever become captain of South Africa, then, like Graeme Smith, he might have matured sufficiently over the years to become almost tolerable. The low standards of South African society are such that boorishness and egotism are no bar to retaining the captaincy in that benighted land. But the demands of English society are much greater. The England captain must be a decent chap. He must possess an instinctive sense of fair play and a self-deprecating demeanour. Pietersen failed on both counts.

The ECB would do well to remember that the England captain is held to a higher standard than colonial captains. No Englishman could ever have behaved as boorishly and dishonestly as Ponting did last year and remained captain. Absolutely not.

Let us treat this unfortunate episode as a salutary lesson that what works for the colonial does not necessarily work for the Englishman.

 

[sox63]

sand, it's a brilliant troll - not to be taken too seriously.

A now deleted comment from the same user:

Its so funny, yet sad how this dude still has that imperial english way of thinking.

 

[AirWolf]

Lol, that is funny.

Kind of reminds you of a Mugabe speech, but only the other way around.

 

[sand_man]

http://www.sport24.co.za/Content/Cr...376293/01-01-0001 12-01/KP Hansie such a hero

 

[ShoX-WS]

http://www.sport24.co.za/Content/Cr...376293/01-01-0001 12-01/KP Hansie such a hero

Then why does he hate Smithy so much???