The yo-yoing affair of Kevin Pietersen and English cricket

Kevin Pietersen has set the cat among the pigeons with his claims in his autobiography ‘KP: the Autobiography.’

Autobiographies of sportsmen are never without controversies. It’s hard to please everyone even in a mundane and routine life; living in a world where everyone has a sense of over-developed pride and ego is about piecing a completely different story, altogether.

Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography – not surprisingly – made a lot of waves, raised a lot of eyebrows and wagged a lot of tongues. Of the last, some in support, many in detraction and a few in ambivalence. No matter what one’s personal opinion may be, Pietersen’s work has made everyone take notice of the nasty undercurrents transpiring in the English cricket team.

It’s a riposte for the many allegations made against him. At the same time, it’s also a venting of sorts bypassing the route of press conferences and interviews that generally do the rounds. The shelling of the literary arsenal by the cricketer-turned-author has thus raised more doubts than they have answered any questions about what exactly went on in the English camp.

Pietersen’s side of the tale

Objectivity being necessary, it’s nonetheless hard to not ignore the claims of prejudice made by the cricketer. Even before the Ashes series in Australia, it was sort of obvious about certain issues brewing between him and the rest of the team. What immediately followed, after the series, resulting in all fingers pointing at him seemed then like an orchestrated event to oust him from the set-up.

Unlike many other players who have gone almost berserk making insinuations about all and sundry, Pietersen bided his time well and aired all his grievances in his work. It’s quintessential of his trademark that was often reflected in the field when he took apart bowlers. The penmanship also made for a systematic approach to all that he perceived was wrong in the team and was done wrong against him.

He didn’t spare anyone as many of his teammates found their reputations torn into shreds across the pages in black. The coach who bore the brunt of most of his frustrations has till now kept his quiet, while a former teammate – a spinning wizard – has spoken out aloud, giving his share of the sordid tale of Pietersen versus the English cricket team and board.

The other end of the pitch

Andy Flower isn’t the coach of the English cricket team anymore. Ostensibly, his resignation from the position followed soon after the 5-0 whitewash at the Ashes in Australia: a questionable move in itself.

His silence so far on the South African-born cricketer’s authoring is perplexing even as he’s received support from many quarters including Graeme Swann and former English captain, Andrew Strauss. The latter’s opining of English cricket being the biggest victim in this saga rings true, but even Strauss can’t avoid explaining that many of these actualities were brought on themselves, by their own choices.

Pietersen remained a maverick till the end, but somewhere the English team and officials weren’t able to do anything much. Neither could they bring him round nor could they ensure that his attitude wasn’t affecting the team negatively, thereby resulting in this catastrophe of all dirty linen being washed in public.

The cricketing bystanders

If Graeme Smith and Ricky Ponting are to be believed, the arrow in this ongoing blame-game points itself in the direction of the English cricketing officials who did nothing to stop the bullying going on in the team. So do the words of former English captain Alec Stewart who has mentioned about Pietersen’s teammates being aware of the parody account of Pietersen being operated in Twitter.

These things say a lot about the attitudinal problems in – and of – the team that the officials of the English Cricket Board need to address. If Pietersen, being one of the senior-most members of the team – despite his eccentricities and apparent flaws – was picked particularly, it makes for a qualitatively inferior team composition as far as team unity goes.

Every cricket team has its problems, and friction developing is an obvious manifestation. It’s a challenging task, and every cricketing team tries to keep its head up at a safe distance of any troubles that may grip them. The English cricket team’s inability to do just this, in spite of their emphatic successes, has rebound embarrassingly on them.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, at this point, hard as it may be for them, they have no choice but to wait for the waves of backlashes from Pietersen’s work to recede into oblivion just as they tried to put away the man himself – like he never was a part of their unit – in the first place.