Australian cricket fans are the best-informed in the world, but few, if any, have ever heard of Tom Harrison, the newly appointed CEO of the English Cricket Board.
They certainly would never of heard of Harrison’s uneventful all-rounder county cricket career of five games for Derbyshire in 1995 with a batting average of 11, and a bowling average of 56.
Nor his admin career, highlighted by senior positions with giant American-based management and sporting promotion company IMG.
Harrison took over as CEO of the ECB last January, and was in the room with England’s new Director of Cricket, Andrew Strauss who point-blank told Kevin Pietersen he had none and Buckleys of being reinstated to the England side.
Strauss’ petty and personally vindictive attack alone was devastating to England’s upcoming Ashes campaign, and did the former very successful England captain no credit whatsoever.
Since that black day, Harrison has piped up with the main reason why the ECB has taking the anti-Pietersen stance was to make sure cricket became more popular in the competition between sports for fan support.
Hello, what rock has Harrison been hiding under?
The only criteria for fan support is the “W” – short for winning.
England’s just come off squaring a boring three-Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean where the home side was missing Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, and Sunil Narine.
The Windies pace attack of Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, and Jason Holder is hardly anywhere near the destructive Australian Ashes pace attack of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Ryan Harris, Josh Hazlewood, and Peter Siddle.
Pietersen would have made a massive difference to England’s shed just by his presence, let alone his undoubted batting ability.
But let’s put the record straight in the bigger picture.
When Pietersen was banished after the last 5-0 Ashes whooping in Australia, there were three English cricketers behind the dramatic move – skipper Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad, and vice-captain-keeper Matt Prior. As much can be read in Pietersen’s autobiography.
Cook and Strauss have been long-term great mates, honed by their 4711 runs together opening the Test batting for England, third only in history to Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes’ 6482, and Matt Hayden-Justin Langer’s 5655.
So Strauss would side with Cook, likewise Cook with Strauss when it came to Pietersen’s future.
Broad’s become an arrogant pain in the butt on and off the field. It’s long overdue for Broad to pull his head in.
But Prior is no longer a thorn in Pietersen’s side, as he’s no longer the England keeper. nor ever will be again.
So Strauss, Harrison, Cook, and Broad combined to seal Pietersen’sfate, but in all fairness it’s Andrew Strauss and Tom Harrison who must shoulder the blame, as well as the incoming chairman of the ECB Colin Graves who has openly said on at least three occasions that if Pietersen got among the county runs, the selector’s couldn’t ignore his return.
So he cracked an unbeaten and career high 355, that should have done the trick.
Not so.
Since Strauss and Harrison’s decision, Graves’ silence has been deafening.
And the ECB has the hide to say they don’t trust Pietersen, but Pietersen has far more cause not to trust the ECB.
What a mess, with English fans the losers, so too the Ashes, as well as Kevin Pietersen.
Johnny Boy Jnr
Guest
Would you want to row crew with Sally Robbins?
colvin
Guest
It seems Straus was OK with KP's return but Cook made it into a him or me issue. So ECB decided to choose Cook.
Ron Moroney
Guest
Thank God someo e has decided that you can't white-ant your captain and dud your team - tbere is still a bit more to the the game than sckring runs or taking wickets, even in these professional, overpaid days.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Exactly! It's amazing the pettiness and childishness. Pietersen has done plenty to show that he's got a serious hunger for runs and to play for England and is willing to put things behind him and just work hard. While Strauss and co just can't get past things that happened years ago, none of which were sackable offenses on his behalf anyway.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Let's face it, you love to hate the best players of the opposition. Like a New South Welshman will hate Wally Lewis because he's a Queenslander and inflicted plenty of pain on NSW through his career. KP makes England a better team, end of story. Having them continually disregard him weakens them and makes Australia's Ashes challenge even stronger. Also, he came across as very likeable during the BBL, and has put forward a pretty consistent story all along, which has added up reasonably well, while the England, Anti-Pietersen camp just come across like petulant children! Suggesting he sacrifice a significant IPL payday to play county cricket in order to have a chance to get back into the England team only to say, right on the back of his highest first class score, that he's got no chance of ever playing for England again because of trust issues (all based on things that happened years ago) is really, really poor!
Lroy
Guest
Pieterson is probably the only bloke who reminded me of Viv Richards.. on his day he would just destroy bowling attacks... he always seemed personable during his interviews, Warney loves him so he cant be all bad surely. Maybe this axing says more about Strauss than anything else.. I was surprised at intensity of his dislike for KP when he was interviewed on the BBC today... Really, there was nothing in it to like, and Ive never seen an administrator talk about a sportsman like that before in any field of competition.
Dasilva
Guest
Really what exactly has Pietersen done since the "texting" scandal (which he served his penalty) The fact is there is no equivalent of going to work drunk (Andrew Simonds) attacking a coworker (Simon Katich), drug scandals or affairs etc. He was sacked without much explanation only vague insinuation he was a poor team player without specific examples during the ill fated Ashes. The only specific examples they give are seemingly innocuous, Pietersen looking disinterest, Pietersen criticising the coach and captain.
Adrian
Guest
And at the end of the day, while Australians (or anybody else for that matter) may not like arrogance, and some of the things KP has done, we hate unfairness more. If KP had been told consistently "you are finished", we may have been ok with that, but for him to be told by people in authority, "the door isn't closed - just go back and make runs in County", and for him to do just that, and then face duplicity that reeks of personal vendetta, by an (admittedly different) person in authority... Not fair... Not OK. Personally, I'll miss the 'Red Bull Run' pandemonium at the start of most KP innings - one of the most comical things I've ever seen in sport.
JimmyB
Guest
You're way off the mark with that character assessment of Cook. He maybe a rubbish captain, but the rest of it's tosh.
Jacob Astill
Roar Rookie
I think you've hit the nail on the head that nearly all parties involved in this saga lose. All except the Australians that is. It leaves England without arguably their best batsman of the modern era, and just casts doubt onto the ECB and the team itself's abilities to handle complex players. At this level of sport there are always going to be egos, but at one point Australia had the Waugh twins, Ponting, Hayden, McGrath, and Warne all in the same side. Their egos were able to be harnessed because they were playing to a common goal, rather than what appears to be happening in England at the moment.
Kev
Guest
Forget Pietersen, Alastair Cook makes Pietersen look like a saint. The ego, the immaturity, the arrogance, the lack of awareness in his own failings as a captain and the constant whinging and hissy fits directed at the ECB because he was fired as captain of the ODI side are just some of his major flaws. It's one thing to take a siege mentality when criticism is aimed at you after a match or series loss as it can be premature, but if the criticism is always in relation to same areas and with Cook, it's been his poor decision making and lack of imagination as a captain, and it's raised by different commentators, and it's been over a sustained period of time, and your best response is to dismiss it as a personal attack, you don't look resolute, you look like an idiot who has no idea what's going on.
dasilva
Guest
Kevin Pietersen is put in the category of "worthy adversary" by the Australian public. We respected him and we loved to hate him
dasilva
Guest
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevinpietersen/11606944/England-door-still-open-for-Kevin-Pietersen.html We know that Ian Bell isn't one of the several other players and is supportive of Kevin Pietersen “Kevin is a quality player, probably the best I’ve ever played with,” said Bell. “He does make any team stronger. I played 10 years with Kevin, and we both went through highs and lows and won a lot of cricket together. I enjoyed my time with him. It’s very difficult to say anything, purely because this has been going on for a long time now. Obviously there were certain things going on. I didn’t see it, I don’t think the players saw it in the dressing room This has been dragging on for a long time. It's a pretty packed middle order right now. But if he keeps scoring runs maybe there's a position in time. "Everyone deserves that opportunity now with a long summer ahead."
Kev
Guest
Akermanis type players are only tolerated as long as they and the team are performing. As soon as either starts to drop off they are the first target of criticism whether it's right or wrong.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Says a lot when us Aussies are defending a man we loved to hate. Just shows how good he really was if we respected his talent even though he played for the olde enemy. As i've said before, i was afraid every time KP came to the crease. The current England team looks like a third XI without KP in the team
Kaks
Roar Guru
If you're ready to walk away from your country because of one man - the same man who was prepared to do everything to get back into the team - then you dont deserve to be playing regardless.
spruce moose
Guest
Actually, Australian cricket fans are shockingly well informed considering most get their info from Channel 9 and cricket.com.au Agree with the rest of the article though.
AR
Guest
Pietersen is the Akermanis of English cricket. Has talent, but brings a toxic element into a team environment. Guys like this need to be tennis players or golfers.
Christo the Daddyo
Guest
He "has the sympathy vote of the entire cricket community aside from the ECB" ...and half the England team.
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Anderson is a big one for me, and it's interesting you don't mention him, Lordy. Have you heard he is not opposed to KP? Also, what do you make of the noise that Cook and 'several other players' would have walked away if KP was re-signed?