England end KP's international career.

[GarlicJam]

is this your first post on the whole affair, Arthur? You have been incredibly restrained.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess my view is predictable. KJ and Sussex seem to have covered it really well. I'll probably collate all my thoughts somewhere when the press have finished with the story, and I am expecting everything to leak out at some point.

They covered the Oval 05, Headingley (SA) and Mumbai. Plus the T20 WC win.

[Making_Splinters]

David Hopps reporting that this is all down to comments KP made about Flower at a meeting between the players regarding their concerns over Flower's coaching methods, a meeting which designed to give the player's free reign to speak their minds.

The same meeting where Prior's supposed comments about Flower came from.

Maybe my comments about players acting like school children weren't so far off the mark, with Cook having a change of heart and playing a selective snitch.

[Aidan11]

Maybe Cook is being portrayed unfairly in all this but I've lost a lot of respect for him over this.

I'd like him to remain in the side as a batsman and step down as captain.

[D/L]

Just about everything I've read on this site and the papers about KP is heresay - very little, if any, evidence has been brought to justify him being singled out by the ECB. He is our best T20 batsman by a mile, notwithstanding Hales position in the rankings.

There were many issues on this ill fated tour that needed addressing - yet without a reasonable time for a sound, sensible review they acted prematurely, and without the appointment of a new coach...

Probably one thing that can be safely said about Pietersen’s sacking is that it was not premature. It should have happened after he admitted sending those texts to members of the South African team. That was not “hearsay”.

There is plenty of evidence to support the ECB’s action, belated though it was.

So what your saying effectively D/L is that he should have been sacked before at the time of the text saga; they got it wrong so are sacking him now. What evidence do you have in your possession that KP was 'corrosive' this time around as your put it? None, because the rest of us haven't.

I'll repeat there were many important issues arising from the tour which required calm, thoughtful review over time - and with a new coach in place - not a knee jerk cobbled together series of meetings regarding one player. I have no torch for KP but I at least expected them to conduct a proper review, appoint a new coach then take it from there. There has been no indication that this was a disciplinary hearing either.

Your dislike of KP is as biased as your support for Bresnan at every turn.

We can only base our opinions on what we see and hear, KJ. You have no evidence that Pietersen’s presence was not corrosive, though the less than whole-hearted support he has had from his team mates or any of the management would suggest that it may well have been and we know it definitely was during South Africa’s tour.

Your comment about bias relating to Pietersen and Bresnan is just childish, I’m afraid. If I thought Bresnan not worth a place in the team, I’d say so. I think it’s fair to say that many of those who didn’t may now have changed their minds a little.

So that means there was no evidence either way does it not? As for SA that is history and he underwent a re-integration process. You obviously disagreed with that decision and are relying on past events to justify a possibility of further discretions, which as we know have not been substantiated publicly. I repeat again there is no mention either of this being a disciplinary hearing - just a meeting to tell him he's been dropped and doesn't figure in any future plans and his contract terminated. Those are the bare facts.

As for my other comment which you describe as childish - where you get that from I don't know - some sort of defence mechanism perhaps? It was merely on observation of bias on your part based on careful observation of your many posts - which far outweigh mine in numbers.

No, it doesn't. Either there were problems with Pietersen in the dressing room or there weren’t. Given his track record, the probability is that there were. We are all allowed to have opinions without hard evidence to support them. The company he keeps also points to the type of person he is.

Saying you detect bias in your observation of my comments, would suggest more about your powers of observation than it would about anything else.

Of course, there has been no statement about a disciplinary hearing. It should be obvious that, contractually, the ECB have to be careful about what they say in public.

[D/L]

Maybe Cook is being portrayed unfairly in all this but I've lost a lot of respect for him over this.

I'd like him to remain in the side as a batsman and step down as captain.

Even if he is being "portrayed unfairly"? If Cook is the main driver behind Pietersen's sacking, his stock will have risen with many England supporters.

[Gingerfinch]

Not sure anyone is coming out of this well. KP has been quiet but mighty mouth Morgan is doing him no favours.

[D/L]

It would tickle me if England tried to sign a coach not called Giles, and that coach said he would only agree if Pietersen was in the team...

There’s the possibility that Pietersen has been put out of the picture in an effort to attract a top coach, DF.

Which coach would want to inherit the sort of problems that Flower has had to deal with over the last few years?

[D/L]

David Hopps reporting that this is all down to comments KP made about Flower at a meeting between the players regarding their concerns over Flower's coaching methods, a meeting which designed to give the player's free reign to speak their minds.

The same meeting where Prior's supposed comments about Flower came from.

Maybe my comments about players acting like school children weren't so far off the mark, with Cook having a change of heart and playing a selective snitch.

Maybe it was trivial and maybe it wasn’t, but it may just have been the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.

[Aidan11]

Now it's all about whistling

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... gland.html

[sussexpob]

Now it's all about whistling

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... gland.html

This is becoming ultra bizarre now. The new coach is going to have a job to collate the new England players charter on team ethics, in fact it might require an extra specially made job just to keep up.

So far we can include the following points......

1. No player should whistle in a jovial way if he has played with flair, but got out too early to make a good contribution to the team. In taking this requirement into consideration, one must also judge how players subsequently perform in the innings. Should a player be found guilty, a meeting with captain and senior directors at the ECB will be setup, and your contract burned in front of you.

2. As an extension to note 1, no player should combine flair with fallibility. As an exception to the rule, all players with surnames "Bell" will be allowed to uppercut balls wide of the off stump and above their head when trying to save a test series.

3. In interests of the team fabric, if a player is invited to a conference to discuss criticism of the coach he must remain silent at all points, even if the chair of the meeting encourages you to join in criticism, and has stressed simliar points.

4. Despite evidence to the contrary, every team member must agree that jogging is the best method of test match preparation. When jogging is unsuitable, batsman and bowlers must pretend to play with their imaginary friends until they have a mental breakdown and are sent home. Any disagreement will lead to similar punishment from note 1.

5. Problems between players and coaches, or players and players, are at no point to be sorted in the usual mature way of sitting down and talking man-o-man. Any player who attempts to confront another is not following team ethics, and is disruptive.

6. Following from point 5, all players shall conform to the established team approach laid out in this subsection. All personal relationship breakdowns in the dressing room shall be addressed by back stabbing, circulating of vicious rumours, unattributed press leaks, and bending the story. If these rules are breached, a player will be sent home for re-education.

7. The sanctity of the dressing room is something sacred, but all details are fair game if you find yourself in a hotel bar with Mike Selvey asking questions about private policy.

Any I have missed out?

[D/L]

Judging by what we have seen over the last year or two, an addition, possibly, to #7.

…or if any player has a celebrity mouthpiece through whom he may communicate his opinions, no matter how obnoxious that celebrity mouthpiece.

Also, an addition, possibly…

8. Any above averagely talented player with celebrity status may expect to find their behaviour judged by standards different to those applied to their team mates and their career extended beyond the point at which, for cricketing reasons alone, it would normally otherwise have been ended.

[alfie]

Have stayed out of this , largely because I don't have the full facts - any more than anyone else on here.

However ; though I am sorry to see him go , I think a case can be made for the decision the selectors have made. Although Pietersen's recent form doesn't demand he be dropped , it doesn't make him indispensable either. Many people have been complaining that England have failed to refresh the team , allowing a bit of staleness to creep in with the same players being regularly selected ...and have consequently not developed the new stars they will need going forward. Not sure I agree that criticism is totally reasonable ; but if you do accept it then it seems hard to argue with a decision to "retire" the oldest of the current batting group as a first step to building a new lineup.
And like him or loathe him , I think everyone concedes that KP is a rather difficult individual to manage ? Perhaps a talented maverick can add an extra dimension to a fairly strong and settled team - as Pietersen certainly did in 2005 ; but is such a fellow the ideal type to have in the dressing room while you are attempting to rebuild quicker than you would like after the unexpected loss of a couple of key players - and probably with less talented material ? For a team that may struggle for a while , may not team discipline and spirit count more than flair , at least at first ?

As I say , I wish it weren't so : loved watching him bat. But I can accept that he just may have become a bit too high maintenance for the increasingly intermittent displays of genius to justify.

The book will sell like hot cakes .

[sussexpob]

Judging by what we have seen over the last year or two, an addition, possibly, to #7.

…or if any player has a celebrity mouthpiece through whom he may communicate his opinions, no matter how obnoxious that celebrity mouthpiece.

Also, an addition, possibly…

8. Any above averagely talented player with celebrity status may expect to find their behaviour judged by standards different to those applied to their team mates and their career extended beyond the point at which, for cricketing reasons alone, it would normally otherwise have been ended.

D/L

While I strongly disagree with your opinion, I can at least agree that what happened in 2012 was not the actions you want to see from a top player. I believe those actions were buttered up, and I believe that is proved by what has happened here, where I believe its a witch hunt. With every passing article, even ones by the DM like Aiden posted about whistling, have the effect to show that KP my be an arsehole, but he is clearly also surrounded by arseholes..... I mean seriously, did someone leak and take offence about whistling when he was around the dressing room? Did the person who leak this take a moment to think "maybe its me who has the problem"?

I fail to see how anyone who complains of a lack of team ethics can leak things to the press. I fail to see how people who complain of team ethics who find fault in a guy whistling to himself. I fail to see a person with team ethics would run to the coach and create an issue after they encouraged another player to share honest feedback in an environment where confidence and trust would be expected. I fail to see how honestly and sensibily questioning the impact of the captains decision to run around in circles, which as GJ states has no benefit on fitness levels in the short term, rather then address skills.

These to me are terminal errors in management, and abuse of trust and sanctity of the dressing room..... but not from KP, from the spineless people going to the press to squeal like little babies.

[sussexpob]

I mean, D/L, I appeal to you without reference to the 2012 issue, to honestly tell me that these issues raised in the current Ashes series were enough to not only drop a player, but to effectively sack him from a rolling contract that runs another 8/9 months, and stop the next coach effectively picking him regardless of form.