The cricket world was used to Kevin Pietersen master-blasting his way through the best attacks during his 104 Test career for England from 2005 to January this year, that included three double centuries, 20 tons, at an average of 47.28.
This week Pietersen changed direction to blast his former coach Andy Flower, and three team-mates – keeper Matt Prior, offie Graeme Swann, and paceman Stuart Board.
And he didn’t miss.
Pietersen accused Flower of fear tactics within the team, especially when the team was losing, and the other three for being bullies to the younger players on the field, and in the shed, with Prior the worst.
Prior would yell out to those who made mistakes in the field to apolgise to the bowlers. So what?
Flower and Board have yet to reply, but Prior and Swann were quick to have their say.
Prior said he will reply when he’s good and ready, and it won’t be on Facebook, or Twitter, which suggests court.
Swann described the allegations as “The biggest work of fiction since Jules Verne.
“The one thing I will say is that I immediately realised it was codswallop when I read the character assassination of Matt Prior”.
Three former England captains have chipped in:
Mike Gatting suggested the book should be read “with a wry smile”.
Nasser Hussain agreed with a lot of Pietersen’s allegations, but added “Team spirit is all about respect, and what happened in the end was that respect was gone between Kevin and his team-mates”.
Michael Vaughan said the allegations were a fall-out in English cricket, and he found that very, very sad.
“Kevin won’t play for England again, so I will remember him as a maverick who could play innings that no other England player could”.
Vaughan’s probably closer to the mark, but all will be revealed when we have a chance to read the 317-page tome for ourselves.
It was only released in the UK today, and you can count on it being a best-seller.
Monday's Expert
Guest
The odd thing is that much of Verne's fiction later came true.
FTR
Guest
Totally agree - and Swann has said the bowlers didn't hammer fielders for errors of execution but for daydreaming or a lack of concentration. You will get hammered for that in any professional sport anywhere in the world. To call it "bullying" is ludicrous. The thing that amuses me is that all the people Pietersen claims are his great mates in cricket - Dravid, Simon Jones, Vaughan, the South Africans - are blokes who didn't have to play with him for very long.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I think some of the bullying stuff is being a bit overplayed. Now former Eng player Ajmal Shahzad has come out saying when he misfielded the ball playing for Eng he was too scared to look up because some guys would give him "hard looks". Geez, "hard looks", come on that is par for the course when you misfield, it's no big deal. I had two consecutive misfields off my bowling on the weekend and gave the second fella loud advice. He acknowledged his mistake and later we laughed about it. That's cricket. It's bloody hot, you're straining your body to bowl as quick as you can and then sloppy fielding causes you to bleed runs - that is a trigger for anger. But it's all in the vitality of the moment and quickly forgotten .
ChrisT
Guest
I've never actually met Kevin Pietersen but I have had the severe misfortune to meet quite a few sociopaths in my time. No doubting, a very talented cricketer ....but I feel like I've met him ......
It seems it is more than just his book that is hitting the fan, his career....