- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The intention was to pass comment on Australia’s return to the international scene – Steve Smith continues to impress, he’s certainly more effective than I thought he’d ever be – but the game of cricket has taken a back seat this week.
In its place, there has been the advance viewings of Kevin Pietersen’s literary offering.
A sportsman with, you would think, a decent tale to tell, resorting to the rantings of an apparently wronged man who has been given his ten minutes on the soapbox.
Desperately inevitable, desperately pathetic, desperately vitriolic, desperately bitter and, above all, desperately sad.
Sad that it’s come to this, a fine player with a very good record signing off by vilifying anybody with whom he has an axe to grind. Sad that he feels the need to take others down with him.
And sad that history has seemingly been rewritten solely for the purpose of selling as many copies as possible.
Over the past few years, have we been watching a toxic, poisonous entity masquerading as a cricket team, a side with so many internal issues that it’s a wonder they could even inhabit the same dressing room?
Fielders so petrified and intimidated that it’s a wonder they could even tie their own shoelaces, let alone set foot on to the field?
Individuals so unhappy with their line of work that goodness knows how they made it to the summit of the world rankings?
No, no and no again.
Bowlers getting annoyed with misfields and dropped catches – that’s cricket.
Players not necessarily seeing eye to eye with teammates – that’s life.
Pietersen’s claims shriek of shock value, of moving seamlessly into the role of victim, completely oblivious to his role in the whole mess.
A glance here, a comment there, a heated exchange, a petulant outburst, add a healthy dose of hindsight, and come up with a picture that’s rooted in one man’s reality and completely at odds with everybody else’s.
If, and this is the issue I find hard to comprehend, there was such a culture of mistrust and disrespect, why is this the first anybody’s heard of it?
With the media the way it is nowadays, instantaneous and all-encompassing, there is next to no chance of keeping anything like that under wraps.
There haven’t been any rumours or hints that behind the façade was a clique-ridden shambles, and yet here we have an alternative take on it all, one which shatters the illusion of all being hunky dory or creates another of a troubled soul in a harsh world.
I don’t doubt there is a sliver of truth in among the bile, just as those being lampooned will view things differently. Yet it’s the sheer ferocity of the accusations and the wildly outspoken nature which lends it a touch of the unbelievable – the boy does indeed protest too much.
The child caught red-handed doing something he shouldn’t at school, knowing he’s in the wrong, and telling the teacher it’s everybody’s fault but his.
Some will believe every word, some won’t find truth in any, some won’t give a toss.
The Ashes last summer was a monumental foul-up for England, and the fallout has been immense. This is merely the latest boot into the ribs of a helpless target.
The light is fading, and the attention dwindling on a cricketing career, and there’s just enough time for one final flail.