England end KP's international career.

[D/L]

I don’t think that anyone could reasonably claim that the ECB are the totally innocent party in this saga, SP. That, however, is no excuse for Pietersen’s appalling behaviour.

Perhaps the ECB would say, in mitigation, that they have had to used some means less praiseworthy than others to get (some of) the public on their side to rid themselves of a really serious problem.

I can quite understand how many people may think, though, “a plague on both their houses”.

[D/L]

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.

The trouble is we can only surmise the extent and the seriousness of the issues during the Ashes, sp, and it is probably natural for some of the cricket watching public to make light of them and for others to think, given past events, that there is probably some substance to them. From a PR point of view, Pietersen should regard his relationship with Piers Morgan as a disaster.

We can’t really divorce what has gone before from our judgment of what has happened now. It seems clear, though, that “reintegration” was a mistake and it would have been better for the ECB to have shown a little more backbone earlier in the piece and for rebuilding, without a malign influence in the team (an assumption, but on the evidence, surely a reasonable one), to have started earlier.

It may also be the case, that to attract a new coach, the ECB had to remove Pietersen from the scene.

[sussexpob]

From a PR point of view, Pietersen should regard his relationship with Piers Morgan as a disaster.

While "on the balance of probabilty" KP and Morgan may have started a Twitter war after communications, and KP has discussed issues with Morgan, we do need to remember that this is a guy that has a proven track record of being an arsehole without any help at all. While Morgan is abhorrent person with a less than glamourous track record, I did feel his input into the issue was, as a sider with KP, something that needed to be done in a press dominated by KP haters. If what he says has truth then Im quite happy for him to demand to know answers, and as he said himself, anyone who disagrees with him can take him to court.

[D/L]

All very interesting, but the real issue is Pietersen's behaviour. Did other issues, the IPL etc., make him send those texts? I don't think so.

Morgan knew that nobody would take him to court for what he had said. Nobody should be impressed by his invitation.

[sussexpob]

We can’t really divorce what has gone before from our judgment of what has happened now

Depends what you are looking for. The ECB had lost my confidence with the IPL issue, and at the time, their willingness for self preservation over the interests of the sport and fans, by risking losing their best player to stop the inevitable tides of IPL coming. They at no stage had been willing to compromise on that issue, instead trying to schedule test series when we knew NZ and Windies star players werent even bothering to turn up..... all for money, never the bigger picture, while trying to initiate a horrible and contradictory argument that any other player who went to the IPL to earn money was a blood sucking mercenary..... Tests on rainy May's against sub par half B teams is fine for integrity of the sport, but earning far more money in IPL was wrong?

They went hard to protect their revenue streams, and KP was the sitting duck on that, given the choice of 100% commitment to the ECB line or no career at all... no compromise. It was clear the ECB were using him as a puppet to make an example of him doing something against their interests, and that after that they needed to crush him to stop others from doing this.

Everything that comes, the manner of it, and the results have, imo, been a constructive revenge against him to show what happens when you question the powers at the ECB. The press leaks, the scapegoating, all of it. They never backed him at any point in his career, he just wasnt a ball scratcher who bent over like Cook and Strauss, he asked very serious questions that needed answering, and for that he paid with his career early, and paid with the stigma of being a lone wolf.

The way he has been treated in the system is unfair. I have no preference to KP over anyone, but more than anything, his treatment to me has always been motivated by something other than the issue at hand. A player who constantly gets treated like that will react, but thats the point, marginalising him with the dark arts and then watching him try to bite back simply played into the ECB and coaching staff's agenda.

[sussexpob]

All very interesting, but the real issue is Pietersen's behaviour. Did other issues, the IPL etc., make him send those texts? I don't think so.

So a healthy team environment should be defined strictly in how submissive a player is to the whims of management? That a player can be used unfairly as an example for a political agenda, but if he then in response texts to his friends that his manager is an idiot, its him in the wrong?

Sounds an extremely healthy team ethic. Not suprising that, if this is the accepted standard of personnel management, we lost 5-0 last series and sent people home with stress related illnesses.

[KipperJohn]

Surely what the ECB should have been considering were all the varying issues and reasons for England's disastrous tour and conducted a proper review after a decent period of reflection and gathering of information.

To jettison KP almost immediately on the team's return, effectively ending his international career, with a new Managing Director virtually only hours into the job does not in any way suggest that they have done that. Was the KP 'issue' - if there was one - the most pressing of their problems?

Well, what's done is done but any new team/director/coach will not be able to avail themselves of KP's services. Would you want that fait a complis if you were applying?

[dan08]

Tredwell on KP: http://www.kentsportsnews.com/tredwell- ... 7-02-2014/

[sussexpob]

Tredwell on KP: http://www.kentsportsnews.com/tredwell- ... 7-02-2014/

So directly now both Swann and Tredwell have come out and indicated there was no issues.

[Alviro Patterson]

The article doesn't really mention much, other than Tredwell having a mutual respect for KP when on a performance programme.

[sussexpob]

The article doesn't really mention much, other than Tredwell having a mutual respect for KP when on a performance programme.

Does it not???

I didn’t recognise any personal conflict or anything like that. I don’t want to talk out of turn, either, but equally I didn’t really notice a great deal, and if I’m honest, my interaction with Kev in that last bit of the Test tour was really positive

[Aidan11]

That's Tredders career brought to an abrupt end then.

In the meantime Jade Dernbach stays silent. Typical.

[Alviro Patterson]

The article doesn't really mention much, other than Tredwell having a mutual respect for KP when on a performance programme.

Does it not???

I didn’t recognise any personal conflict or anything like that. I don’t want to talk out of turn, either, but equally I didn’t really notice a great deal, and if I’m honest, my interaction with Kev in that last bit of the Test tour was really positive

No it does not

“But, obviously I’ve never been a big part of the management group [for England] in trying to manage the different people you have in the dressing room, and I guess that is part of what’s been going on behind the scenes.

[D/L]

All very interesting, but the real issue is Pietersen's behaviour. Did other issues, the IPL etc., make him send those texts? I don't think so.

So a healthy team environment should be defined strictly in how submissive a player is to the whims of management? That a player can be used unfairly as an example for a political agenda, but if he then in response texts to his friends that his manager is an idiot, its him in the wrong?

Sounds an extremely healthy team ethic. Not suprising that, if this is the accepted standard of personnel management, we lost 5-0 last series and sent people home with stress related illnesses.

No. Though certain expectations can be set out, a “healthy team environment” is not something that can be prescribed by management. It is much more organic than that and something that develops based upon mutual respect and players being seen to do the best they can for the team. It would seem that these attributes are things that do not feature highly in Pietersen’s priorities.

Trott’s problems, of course, are irrelevant to this particular discussion.

[D/L]

...Well, what's done is done but any new team/director/coach will not be able to avail themselves of KP's services. Would you want that fait a complis if you were applying?

It’s entirely possible that any new coach following Flower would not want to avail himself of Pietersen’s services and inherit the problems that would probably go with it.