While the cleanup act continues surrounding the mess made by the English Cricket Board (ECB) in the handling of Kevin Pietersen’s sacking, one thing has become glaringly obvious for the power brokers at ECB headquarters. Something must change.
Arguably England’s greatest ever batsman was discarded without so much as a ‘thanks for the memories’.
A cricket dressing room will never be composed of 11 players that are conformists and yes men. Pietersen openly admits in his autobiography that he won’t “march in step” if he doesn’t feel it is right, and nor should he.
Cricket is a game of 11 individuals pulling together for the good of a team. A mercurial and once-in-a-generation talent like Pietersen is good for any team. He brings some extra challenges into the dressing room, but the way in which they were handled shows just how inept the ECB can be.
Where the ECB and England coaching hierarchy have failed is in their complete lack of basic man management, which for a professional body is nothing short of a shambles. This is a country with world renowned man managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, who handled characters with bigger egos than Pietersen and still became the most successful boss in British football history. Serious inquiries are needed to make sure this kind of mistake doesn’t happen again.
Pietersen has a big ego, there is no escaping that. But a by-product of this is a fanatical drive to dispatch opposition bowlers to all parts of the field, and his one mindedness in knowing what he needs to do to prepare to play. So if he wanted to sit out a meaningless warm-up game in favour of relaxing his body and mind, why wasn’t he allowed to?
Perhaps most crucially of all, why was he constantly held at arm’s length by head coach Andy Flower, a man and coach he should be able to confide in and be supported by, not treated like a pariah?
For a player with a proven track record in big games, surely it was not beyond the realms of possibility for the ECB and coaching staff to allow Pietersen the measures he felt appropriate for getting the best out of himself. An extra few days with his family or an extra day off from the intense pressure of international cricket are not unreasonable to ensure the happiness of your greatest player.
Under the argument of team unity and cohesion he was ostracised and sacrificed so English cricket could move in a new direction and look towards the future. A future that looks all the less exciting without their brightest star.
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