Kevin Pietersen's Autobiography.

[Aidan11]

Bell is the strong and silent type.

[SaintPowelly]

So basically KP has taken aim at the people no longer involved in the England set-up : Swann, Prior and Flower and kind of defends the one still there ( Cook ), how political.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Strauss said the same about Bell to Mark Butcher, as he said on Switch Hit.

[Arthur Crabtree]

So basically KP has taken aim at the people no longer involved in the England set-up : Swann, Prior and Flower and kind of defends the one still there ( Cook ), how political.

Or you could argue that this is sensitive, or considerate. He protects the names of some players and not others (I take that to mean he is guarding the reputations of players in the team). Though Broad takes a couple of awkward blows. Against that, Prior was still around when the book was written. So neither way of looking at it quite works.

[hopeforthebest]

Strauss said the same about Bell to Mark Butcher, as he said on Switch Hit.

Perhaps Bell learned that meetings with many voices never agrees anything and all important decisions are made in tiny groups.

[Arthur Crabtree]

How I'm feeling.

Well, our revels now are ended. These are actors as I foretold you...

I'm left with sympathy for the players who have left the stage. Pietersen, who can't quite face up to his end, and senses that a sportsperson's demise is a kind of mortality. A batter lives his life facing up to these little deaths, sometimes after an innings of glorious abundance, sometimes of pitiful failure. Not just Kevin, but Swann, IJLT and all the others before them. Some careers end in celebration, an acceptance of the passing time. Other careers are murdered in their sleep.

And of course, other new players will come along to question the status quo, and other older people will close ranks to protect it. And the same mistakes will be re-enacted.

Although many questions are asked, and should be considered, of the ECB and Andy Flower (Prior's role is really just a part of a mutually shared antagonism) this book has left me feeling a little less distant from the team I supported. I learned that Cook, for all his unsuitability for the captaincy, isn't the manipulative figure he seems. The rather remote Gary Ballance, it transpires is a funny and likeable man. Maybe the wheel, or a wheel, is starting to turn, which the ECB counted on.

Kevin's reflections on the winter tour seem well expressed and convincing. He provides examples, which will be confirmed or denied in time, but tally with my impressions. While so many have told us in the press of Pietersen's personal failings, I think he still had much to offer as an England player, and I feel he has been treated, and managed appallingly (obviously, just my view, for what it's worth).

KP's voice is heard strongly in this book, and for a man who sometimes misses the nuances of the actions of others, he writes with a biting and bitter irony, that grows stronger as the book progresses. As he said, there's not much cricket in it, but we can all remember that well enough. For good and bad.

All sporting bios are essentially trivial, and this is no different, but in an arena where there is little excellence, this was well worth reading. As travellers on the same journey as me, you'll already know if you want to read it.

[Aidan11]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

[Making_Splinters]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

England just don't learn do they? This was dead and buried in the press, yet Broad and Jimmy feel they have to bring it back up. Here's a tip for free lads, zip it.

[sussexpob]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

England just don't learn do they? This was dead and buried in the press, yet Broad and Jimmy feel they have to bring it back up. Here's a tip for free lads, zip it.

I like the way that Jimmy doesn't say "Bullying, nope, didn't happen".... instead he says "I cant remember it"....

[Aidan11]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

England just don't learn do they? This was dead and buried in the press, yet Broad and Jimmy feel they have to bring it back up. Here's a tip for free lads, zip it.

To be fair they are just playing a straight bat on questions a reporter has asked them on ambush. If they refused to comment it would probably have sounded a lot worse.

[Aidan11]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

England just don't learn do they? This was dead and buried in the press, yet Broad and Jimmy feel they have to bring it back up. Here's a tip for free lads, zip it.

I like the way that Jimmy doesn't say "Bullying, nope, didn't happen".... instead he says "I cant remember it"....

...before adding "Now get out of my face before I break your legs".

[sussexpob]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/29826001

England just don't learn do they? This was dead and buried in the press, yet Broad and Jimmy feel they have to bring it back up. Here's a tip for free lads, zip it.

I like the way that Jimmy doesn't say "Bullying, nope, didn't happen".... instead he says "I cant remember it"....

...before adding "Now get out of my face before I break your legs".

Like Arsene Wenger on crack......

[meninblue]

Finished reading the autobiography. Neither KP nor ECB management is blameless. In some incidents it was KP's msitake whereas in other incidents ECB were wrong. I would rather judge both on case to case basis rather than backing only one party. The good thing though is that finally someone dared to open the mouth. Though the messenger was wrong at time, the message about environment around international team at least has to be taken notice of.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, a fair appraisal Adi. I guess you could say as the people in charge of English cricket, and as the man with responsibility for the team, the ECB and Flower should have been operating in a professional manner, and they are more culpable for their errors. And I think that KP was often provoked into his misdemeamours, but I can't argue with that summation.

[meninblue]

Yes, a fair appraisal Adi. I guess you could say as the people in charge of English cricket, and as the man with responsibility for the team, the ECB and Flower should have been operating in a professional manner, and they are more culpable for their errors. And I think that KP was often provoked into his misdemeamours, but I can't argue with that summation.

I agree to your point (re. culpable) that none from ECB have been held accountable but only KP was punished.