Kevin Pietersen may be back in the squad to tour India for the next eight weeks but it seems that a substantial number of the men who control the corridors of power at Lord’s are far from convinced that his return is the best solution to the dilemma facing England.
The various delays in making the announcement, the number of times he has been asked to repeat his apology following his texts to the South African dressing room and the delay until a week before the party leaves for training in Dubai all tell the same tale.
The truth is that no one on the Board, among the selectors, the management team and certainly not in the group of players is convinced of the truth of his statement that he has seen the error of his ways. “Many of us who have followed his career would not be surprised if it all blew up again,” said one veteran of England and Wales Cricket Board politics.
Another contact told me he thought that the ECB was convinced that bringing Pietersen back from his three-month exile was the lesser of two evils. If so, it is a sad way to conduct business and there is no certainty it will work.
Better to have KP in the side, making hundreds, winning matches, and drawing crowds than sitting on the sidelines, criticising England and making runs for T20 teams around the world.
Some people — if the correspondence with my website is typical — are not certain England need Pietersen. “Send him back to South Africa and tell him he will never play for England again,” was one comment recently.
Broad’s take
Just how offensive his behaviour had become can be judged by the reaction of Stuart Broad, all-rounder in the Test team and captain of the T20 side. He revealed this week that he did not speak to Pietersen for two months of last summer and you would be wrong to think that Broad is just a mindless and possibly jealous teammate.
Nothing of the sort. Broad is a typical British sportsman, son of the Test opening bat Chris, an educated, well-brought-up, polite and — especially for a 6ft 6in fast bowler — soft-voiced and rather genteel young man.
If he was so upset by Pietersen’s behaviour that he could not bring himself to speak to him for two months then his behaviour must have been very offensive indeed.
You can also read Broad’s character after he also said he felt it was time to draw a line in the sand and allow Pietersen to resume his international career. Not everyone is so forgiving.
“The whole episode can be called a success for the ECB in that they have managed to cover up most of what has gone on,” said a source. “Now those of us remote from events will have to wait to see what comes next. With our fingers crossed.”
Things have changed
Tours of India are far from the rough treks of 25 years ago when I first went with England to the sub-continent. Those trips are now the stuff of county dressing room legends which say no player dare stray far from a toilet, umpires were, to say the least, kind to the home team and crowds were intimidating.
Bottled water, neutral umpires and diminishing crowds have made a trip to India exciting rather than dangerous but there is no doubt that the one starting shortly will be one of the most interesting of all time, watched by a score of TV cameras, focused on the England dressing room as intently as they are on the action in the middle.
via The Hindu Newspaper http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/mumblings-and-rumblings-over-the-return-of-pietersen/article4013719.ece
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