Kevin Pietersen excusive interview: The truth about England's bullying culture

[Chandan]

http://goo.gl/Z8u7KO A very sensible article on this entire episode!! Who needs a litany of Pietersen's complaints? His cricket gets hardly a mention in his new book. And isn't the cricket the point of Kevin Pietersen? Simon Barnes October 7, 2014 Talking about Cook? Shane Warne and Kevin Pietersen catch up, The Oval, June 24, 2014 To read Kevin Pietersen's book KP: The Autobiography is to be filled with sympathy. I never thought I would feel that way. It had initially seemed that all the faults were on the one side, but now I am filled with wondrously compassionate feelings about the England and Wales Cricket Board and everyone connected with the England team. That's the problem with (a) score-settling and (b) egomania. Both tend to alienate sympathy. And oh! the sensitivity of the fundamentally insensitive man. Pietersen could - and did - drive a mechanical flail through the England team without being aware that anyone was inconvenienced, but should he suffer the *****ing of a pin he's awake all night weeping. This is a borderline unreadable book. Can't blame the ghost, David Walsh: how could anyone make 315 pages of bleating into a convincing narrative? Apparently they're all bastards. Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me! But the strange event is not the falling-out that the book celebrates. The miracle was that it lasted for nine years. Never mind who's to blame: we should be on our knees giving thanks for what we actually got - and that holds good whether you cheer for England or anyone else. Say you're a Holly or a Bollywood producer and you're making a film. No matter how big the star and how temperamental the director, you know a film is a team thing. But you still get Mozart to write the music. You know you'll get trouble, because Mozart is like that. Quite a lot of people will end up hating him: bloody WM, we'd be better off without him. You'll probably vow never to employ him again. But your film will be blessed with the sweetest music anyone ever wrote: so you're ahead on the deal. You've won. What's a cricket team for? What's any sporting team all about? Is it a club of like-minded fellows? A group of dear old pals? Is it all about happiness? Or the expression of certain agreed virtues? Or is it about pursuing victory - and by implication excellence - with every resource at your disposal? The England cricket team was lucky enough to get hold of a cricketing Mozart. He came as an émigré and a mercenary. England wanted his runs, he wanted the opportunity to make them, and the proper reward for doing so. It was a deal: the best kind of business, in which both parties walk away feeling like winners. At any rate at first. The whole KP business would have been worth it for just three innings, and I was there for all of them. Let's take 'em in reverse order. In Mumbai, with England already one Test down, he scored 186 on a turning wicket; England went on to win the series. In Adelaide in 2010, he scored 227 as England set off towards complete domination of the Ashes series. And in 2005, with England about to lose to Australia at The Oval and so fail to win the Ashes, he changed everything with an innings of thunderous insanity, scoring 158. Pietersen was worth all the trouble for that innings alone, as Mozart was worth all the trouble for just the Coronation Mass. This is where truth is found in sport: in deeds, in victories, in defeats. I don't believe a word of Pietersen's book, but then I don't believe a word anyone else has said either. What matters is that Pietersen, with England falling apart as they played for a draw, launched one of the most thrilling counter-assaults in cricketing history and went for the Australian enforcer, Brett Lee, like a starving man-eater. It was an innings that had everything: the joys of partisanship (for I am English), the drama of a single player taking hold of a team event and changing its course utterly, and the unalloyed excellence of a sporting performer at the very peak of his powers doing something that few others would have dared even to dream about. That was what Pietersen did best: he was the great transformer. He changed the course of matches and of series. Pietersen could drive a mechanical flail through the England team without being aware that anyone was inconvenienced, but should he suffer the *****ing of a pin he's awake all night weeping All that stuff gets hardly a mention in the book, and all that stuff is precisely the point of Kevin Pietersen. It's like reading a book about all the rows Mozart had with employers and performers, one in which music gets only mentioned here and there - and then mostly as a bridge between injustices. So who has failed? A team is supposed to do everything it can to be the best it can. By definition, then, a team must embrace difficult individuals as well as good team men. The abiding principle is that any team should be able to bring the best from any individual: and that any failure to do so is a failure shared by all. If you decide that you're better off without your best player, then has one person failed? Or ten? Or all 11? Or everybody in the squad, or everybody in the entire organisation? And of course, England weren't better off without Pietersen: a series defeat against Sri Lanka was followed by a hideous collapse against India. Do you know whose fault it was? I can tell you. It was Mitchell Johnson's fault. Johnson bowled so fast and so well for Australia last winter that all England's macho pretensions were exposed for bluster. The team fell apart. What was acceptable in Pietersen in victory became intolerable in defeat - even though he was England's leading run scorer. So they sacked him. Rather than sacking the other ten. So the score-settling has now got into its stride and with his book, Pietersen has reduced himself to the stature of a pygmy. Still, no one else looks any better. And I, who remember The Oval and Adelaide and Mumbai, grow weary. A line of Bob Dylan winds itself through my mind and subtly distorts: You're right from your side, I'm right from mine - We're just one too many matches and a thousand runs behind…

[rkt.india]

Probably becoz current Indian players or indian fans dont share ICF view

No, they are too busy collecting cheques.

[kumar713]

Send Aaron and Yuvraj to Broads room in the night.

:hysterical::hysterical:

[Chandan]

Allegations! Counter allegations! http://goo.gl/VhOimh Kevin Pietersen the bully not me, claims Graeme Swann, as fall-out continues from autobiography and ECB report Kevin Pietersen's allegations were that England bowlers ruled with fear but Graeme Swann insists bowlers knew where line was and that assassination of Matt Prior can be considered bullying Kevin Pietersen the bully not me, claims Graeme Swann, as fall-out continues from autobiography and ECB report War of words: Kevin Pietersen (left) and Graeme Swann (right) have differing versions of events Photo: ACTION IMAGES By Telegraph Sport, and PA9:24AM BST 08 Oct 2014 Comments81 Comments Graeme Swann has responded to Kevin Pietersen's claims of bullying within the England dressing room and suggested the sacked batsman is guilty of such behaviour himself. Pietersen's allegations that the England bowlers ruled with fear and demanded apologies for fielding mistakes are made in his autobiography, which is published this week. Swann on Monday called the suggestions "codswallop" before learning on Tuesday that an England and Wales Cricket Board document on Pietersen's behaviour alleges that the South African had referred to him as a "c**t". Swann was given light treatment compared to wicket-keeper Matt Prior, though, with Pietersen reserving most of his personal criticism for the Sussex man. But, according to Swann, bowlers knew where the line was and, in his opinion, Pietersen's assassination of Prior can be considered as bullying. "There was absolutely no bullying. Sure, bowlers shout at fielders if they are out of position or not concentrating," he wrote in The Sun. "A bowler or wicketkeeper delivers a bit of a kick up the backside - just like a goalkeeper shouts at his centre-half. This is international sport, not the Under-11s. "If Kevin or other players can't take a b*****king for being unprofessional, for being out of position or seemingly not trying, they are in the wrong business. I must stress bowlers never had a go at fielders for dropping catches or a genuine mistake. It was when somebody was out of position or too busy waving to the crowd." Swann did concede that Pietersen's claims that Jonathan Trott "cracked" during a game in Bangladesh after such an incident carried some truth, but insisted that Pietersen had "misinterpreted" things. It is Pietersen's words about Prior which anger Swann the most, though. Known as 'Big Cheese' in the England squad, Pietersen accuses Prior of being a back-stabber, "horrendous" and "embarrassing" amongst other things. Swann feels his criticism is unfair, considering it was Prior who actively sought Pietersen's reintergration into the England team after the text-gate scandal of 2012. "It is Kevin's attacks on Prior and (Andy) Flower that really annoy me. Matt is the most passionate bloke about protecting the team environment. He was the voice of the dressing room," he added. "Kevin obviously doesn't realise Matt was the guy who really fought to get him back in the team after the Andrew Strauss messages business in 2012. "Matt was the one guy telling everyone we must work with Kevin, that he's a brilliant batsman and we need his talent. Cheese was the one bloke who picked up the phone to Kevin. "Now Kevin has written a whole chapter assassinating him, even having a pop at him for taking his bike to New Zealand. Kevin's attack on Matt is, dare I say it, a bit like bullying." Speaking at a question and answer session in Manchester on Tuesday, Pietersen accused Swann of letting England down when he left last winter's Ashes Tour to retire through injury. Upon getting back from Australia, Swann praised Pietersen's attitude on tour, and stands by that viewpoint. "I've said all along that Kevin was fine in Australia until the point I left the tour before the Fourth Test," he added. "So what changed? It must have something to do with Prior and Flower because he seems to have a vendetta. And, of course, he has a book to sell. "Well, there is one ever-present feature in all this. Kevin shouldn't be called KP, he should be called CD - Common Denominator."

[Chandan]

http://goo.gl/m6B99L Shane Warne: Dossier on Kevin Pieter*sen ‘juvenile’ JOSH BURROWS AND NICOLE JEFFERY THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 09, 2014 12:00AM Print Save for later Nicole Jeffery Sports Reporter Sydney Kevin Pietersen’s ashes clashes. Kevin Pietersen’s ashes clashes. Source: TheAustralian SHANE Warne has described the internal bickering of the Eng*land dressing room during last summer’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash as “kindergarten stuff’’. The Australian great said he was both astonished and amused at the revelations of infighting in the England camp, sparked this week by the launch of ostracised England batsman Kevin Pieter*sen’s autobiography. Pietersen’s assertions that he was sacked from the England team as a scapegoat after the failed campaign and was still to be given an explanation for his permanent dismissal drew a response from the establishment yesterday when an England cricket board legal document was leaked to the ESPNcricinfo website. Warne, who is a friend and supporter of Pietersen, ridiculed the pettiness of the dossier against the South African-born batsman. “Just saw this ECB document. Wow, are the players 2 year olds?’’ Warne tweeted. “Actually giggling at this kindergarten stuff.’’ Former England captain Mich*ael Vaughan agreed. writing he had “never read as much bollocks in all my time as this dossier’’. He described the situation as an “absolute shambles’’. The ECB denied that the dossier formed part of the official investigation that resulted in Pietersen’s sacking in February, but admitted that it was a version of a list compiled by lawyers as a defence to claims that might be held against them by the batsman, whose book goes on sale today. The document, published on the ESPNcricinfo website, *includes accusations that Pietersen: • Said Alastair Cook’s captaincy was “weak” and “tactically inept” at a meeting with Andy Flower, the England team director. • Disobeyed Flower by taking members of the team out drinking before the second Test, in Adelaide (the late-night drinking was reported at the time in Adelaide’s TheAdvertiser). • Told a team physiotherapist he would use an ongoing knee injury as an excuse to go home if England lost the third Test in Perth. • Described his teammates as a “bunch of c..ts” when returning to the dressing room after being dismissed during the fourth Test in Melbourne. • Insulted Flower during a private meeting before the fifth Test in Sydney to such an extent that the pair did not speak for the remainder of the Ashes tour. • Walked out of the dressing room after defeat in the fifth Test saying “I don’t give a f..k”. Pietersen, at a launch event in Manchester, gave his reaction to the claims, stating: “I heard about it in the car earlier today. It’s embarrassing. They couldn’t even spell Cookie’s name right. It’s a joke. “I’m done with it. It’s so embarrassing I don’t even want to give it any thought. I’m just getting on with my life.” Many of the claims in the five-page document, which was subsequently removed from the website, have been aired before but the botched release of the dossier is another setback in the ECB’s attempt to win the public relations struggle with their former player. Pietersen’s book, KP: the Autobiography, was released to journalists on Monday after a confidentiality agreement expired last week. He has since been on a hectic round of interviews in which he expanded on the grievances detailed in his book. And again it was Flower and Matt Prior who came in for particular criticism. “The ECB needed a scapegoat,” Pietersen, 34, told BBC Radio 4. “Flower had it in for me ever since he took over. When they sacked me they never gave me any reasons. I still don’t know right now why I’m not playing for England,” Pietersen claimed. He also rubbished claims made by Paul Downton, the managing director of England Cricket, that he was “disinterested” during the Ashes series. “How can you be disinterested when you’re facing 95mph from Mitchell Johnson? How can you be disinterested when you scored more runs than anyone else in Australia?” he said. Speaking about Prior later on BBC Radio 5 Live, Pietersen reiterated his accusations of bullying. “When he got dropped (after the Perth Test), he was an embarrassment in the dressing room in Australia,” he said. “It was the way he was treating the other players which I didn’t like and so I stood up to it.” Additional reporting: The Times

[Ram]

Couple of things - 1) Completely believe everything KP has said about Prior being a bully. Remember the controversy in 2007, when the idiot Prior walked up to one of the Indian players and is alleged to have asked 'I drive a Ferrari, what car do you drive..?' A lot of people forget that Prior had an extremely unceremonious exit from international cricket around 2007 and there were lots of questions reg. his attitude/arrogance. 2) KP is an effin diva. He has always been one and will continue to be one. This is the problem with divas - They are under the delusion that their opinion/voice on all matters must be heard at all times by all parties. It may very well be that he was unfairly treated within the English set-up and unceremoniously sacked after the last Ashes, but the question to ask - Which international player has been treated fairly by the system anyway? There is a tale of discrimination behind every international cricketer out there. Do they all come out and write books and shame their entire country? Did Virender Sehwag ever go public on how he was essentially forced out from the team by Dhoni and Fletcher because they felt his fielding was a liability? Did Bhajji ever come out publicly how he was discarded in favor of Ashwin and Ojha in the test team? The problem with KP is - He actually thinks its incumbent upon people to care about what is happening with his life. Most of us couldnt give 2 hoots, but he does not seem to get that.

[zep1706]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11149869/Alec-Stewart-I-told-ECB-that-three-England-players-had-access-to-Twitter-account-mocking-Kevin-Pietersen.html

[CoverDrive]

What a bunch of idiots

[Precambrian]

Jesus this is worse than pcb

[Desi Cartman]

10% of the book through and its just moaning,complaining and whinging. I was expecting that he'll be talking about his life, childhood, early days etc but it starts with " they did this to me, they did that to me"

[beetle]

10% of the book through and its just moaning' date='complaining and whinging. I was expecting that he'll be talking about his life, childhood, early days etc but it starts with " they did this to me, they did that to me"[/quote'] You have already read it????

[Desi Cartman]

You have already read it????

I use audiobooks (audible.com) and listen when driving or when vella at work. I only 10% through but its all whinging

[Lord]

I wish it all happened just before our tour

[Gollum]

Can't believe we lost last 3 test series to these clowns. Worst was the home series spanking in 2012.

[SLICKR392]

Smith and Punter have backed KP's bullying claims.

[Desi Cartman]

Smith and Punter have backed KP's bullying claims.

Behti ganga .. hand wash ! :agree:

[Laaloo]

Can't believe we lost last 3 test series to these clowns. Worst was the home series spanking in 2012.

It's all part of the process my friend now send some biryani over :woot:

[Chandan]

This is Artherton's article and he even comments on how Indian captain behaved after defeats in 3 days: http://goo.gl/DdwKhD What happens in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room MICHAEL ATHERTON THE TIMES OCTOBER 10, 2014 12:00AM ‘I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the Gabbatoir. Mitchell Johnson bowlin ‘I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the Gabbatoir. Mitchell Johnson bowling at 95mph; 45,000 Australians baying for blood,’ Kevin Pietersen. Source: Getty Images LORD’S, last week. Typical corporate function. The Long Room. Two hundred people. Andrew Strauss and Graeme Swann, the guests. Dinner, ask them a few questions, polite conversation, decent folk at the table. Job done. Nice and easy. Beforehand, a question from a guest as we take pre-dinner drinks in the bar. Can we have a look at the England dressing room? Sure, no problem. Nip up the two flights of stairs, past the portraits of Gooch, Vaughan, Stewart. Through the door that says admittance by permission of the captain only, and into the hallowed place. Save for the honours board that marks the Lord’s dressing room as special, it is like any other. Seats around the perimeter. Pegs for clothes. Huge table in the middle for autographs, sandwiches, coffee, tea. A physio’s table. Washbasin in the corner. Nothing else. Bit cramped. I point out my old chair, next to where the Big Cheese, Matt Prior, once put his bat through a window. Used to sit there. OK, he says. We leave. I sense he’s disappointed. It’s what people always want to see at Lord’s. Not the Long Room. Not the media centre. Not the restaurants or bars. Not the MCC committee room or the library. The dressing room. The England dressing room. What’s it like, they say? Just like any other dressing room, I say. Uh? Oh. What they really want to know, of course, is what goes on in the dressing room. What goes on in the middle of a Test match? How do people behave? What’s it like? Ah, that’s different. It ain’t normal. There’s a reason why the cameras aren’t allowed in there. There’s a reason there’s a notice on the door saying admission at the permission of the captain only. It’s a private place. A place for people to let off steam. You see, it’s not like a normal working environment, not like a normal office. You want normal? Become an accountant. What’s it like? Here’s Kevin Pietersen during the first Test of the 2013-14 Ashes series in Brisbane, page 244 of his autobiography: “Lunch, no thanks. I was sitting there thinking: I could die here in the f***ing Gabbatoir. Mitchell Johnson bowling at 95mph; 45,000 Australians baying for blood; Michael Clarke baying for blood.” It’s not like sitting in an office with the year-end results. No surprise, then, that cricketers occasionally lose the plot in there. That’s why the ECB tries to put in a confidentiality clause in players’ central contracts. That’s why Clive Woodward got his rugby World Cup-winning squad to agree not to dish the dirt on each other. Not because revealing every little detail paints an accurate picture of what goes on, but because it does precisely the opposite. The juicy bits, the fights, the arguments — they all happen, inevitably, and they are memorable, but without the rest or without context they can paint a totally inaccurate picture. I’m not a violent man. One day, after a tight quarter-final defeat for Lancashire, I took my bat to a brick bath in a changing room after the game. Tried to destroy it, brick by brick. Destroyed my bat in doing so, too. What was I doing? I can’t explain what drove me to do it, except that we lost a game we should have won. Out of the cup. Out of order. Immature. Ridiculous. But it happened and I’m not a violent man. I’m not a fighter. Never thrown a punch in my life. Never got into a fight. Probably a bit yellow if truth be told. One day, in the Lancashire dressing room, I had to be separated from another England player just as I was about to throw a punch. Lucky for me. He would have nailed me to the floor. The man who did the separating had the bridge of his nose cut by a bat being used as a weapon. This happened, but I am not a fighter. I don’t rant and rave. Mild-mannered most of the time. One day, just outside the England dressing room, I grabbed an England bowler by the scruff of his neck, and let rip. He was twice my size and, by rights, should have floored me. Out of order, totally out of order. I’m a mild-mannered man, honest. Want more? I’ve seen players destroy showers, break mirrors, kick fridges, smash lockers, hurl abuse at each other, throw kit around. I’ve seen them frozen with fear, nauseous with nerves, exhausted, bitter, angry, tearful and mad. And you know what? For most of the time, the dressing rooms I was a part of were great places to be, full of fun and laughter and joy. Terrific. If I only told you tales in isolation you would think I was stark raving mad. A lunatic. I’m not, I promise. Andy Flower, the sourpuss, apparently walked around the England changing room towards the end of the last Ashes tour with a face like thunder. You know what? England were losing, getting hammered, thrashed, their arses kicked all over Australia. People laughing at them. Whitewashed. Flower cared about that. Maybe England supporters want a coach and captain who appear unconcerned about looking like a rabble. India’s captain didn’t appear to be too concerned about losing a Test in three days this summer. Said he was happy for the extra days off. Just another game. I don’t think England supporters want that. I’m not sure, either, they want to see bowlers shouting and screaming out on the field, when a fielder makes a mistake. . Stay tight, united, disciplined instead. Flower and Strauss and Alastair Cook spoke about that. The dressing room is the place to wash the dirty laundry, not out in the middle. The dressing room. Something needs to be said, that’s the place to do it. To each other’s face, not through social media. I repeat that I have sympathy for Pietersen’s critique of the parody Twitter account and the behaviour of some bowlers towards certain fielders when mistakes were made in the field. But a bullying culture in the dressing room? This place to let off steam, to rant and rave. This fun place, joyful place, caring place; this tearful place, tough place. Want a normal environment? Try accountancy.

[f.b.m]

2) KP is an effin diva. He has always been one and will continue to be one. This is the problem with divas - They are under the delusion that their opinion/voice on all matters must be heard at all times by all parties. It may very well be that he was unfairly treated within the English set-up and unceremoniously sacked after the last Ashes, but the question to ask - Which international player has been treated fairly by the system anyway? There is a tale of discrimination behind every international cricketer out there. Do they all come out and write books and shame their entire country? Did Virender Sehwag ever go public on how he was essentially forced out from the team by Dhoni and Fletcher because they felt his fielding was a liability? Did Bhajji ever come out publicly how he was discarded in favor of Ashwin and Ojha in the test team?

Neither Viru nor Harbhajan deserved a spot in the XI when they were dropped. KP on the other hand was one of their best players.

[Chalks]

Just hope ECB don't prevent KP from playing in Big Bash.