It's Tough Being Me - The Kevin Pietersen Story

[Andre]

Originally Posted by AlanJLegend

I agree wholeheartedly.

Also, who was it on here that a month or so ago predicted that KP would make a limited overs comeback just before the T20 world cup, having missed the pointless series against Australia and no certainty to get back into the ODI side anyway?

I think it is definitely more

KP - 1
ECB - 0


He has pulled one over the ECB in a big way.

Yep, it was me who said this. And I stand by it and think he has won here big time.

On the face of it, it looks like he was left out of the last Test, cut his losses and made himself available for all formats from now on (but still got to miss the ODers he didn't want to play in) so his nose isn't too far out of joint.

From there, England have evidently shown they don't think they can go without him and have delayed naming their Test squad to accomodate him again. So he's missed the one dayers and got them to change their side based on him playing along for the next period of time.

Win to him in my books. He'll get to go to the T20 WC and its possible his ODI spot is gone anyway due to the superb short format form of Bell/Bopara. So he may very well have got his wish.

All the while, I bet he's signed a pretty handsome deal with the Delhi Daredevils and will retire from all internationals post Ashes tour in 2013/14 to Oz and become a T20 freelancer. He'll be 34/35 by then and still have a good 3-4 years of worldwide T20 cricket in him to cash in.

Poor communicator, yes, too honest, definetly, but stupid... I doubt. His whole career has been pretty methodically planned out from an early point. Reckon he might have his next few years sorted too.

[Jono]

Wow, so strongly disagree. The guy is going to have to play the NZ test series which he doesn't want to do, and he's going to have to play ODIs. Yes he can play the T20 WC, but that is a win for the ECB, they want him to play. They just didn't want other players thinking they can quit ODIs and play T20s as well.

[Spikey]

i wasn't claiming it as a win for KP btw. for me. i reckon it's 0-0 draw really. each won a couple of battles, lost a couple

edit

It's Tough Being Me being a sure thing for KP's auto-bio at some stage won him some points ftr

[Andre]

Originally Posted by Jono

Wow, so strongly disagree. The guy is going to have to play the NZ test series which he doesn't want to do, and he's going to have to play ODIs. Yes he can play the T20 WC, but that is a win for the ECB, they want him to play. They just didn't want other players thinking they can quit ODIs and play T20s as well.

Yeah but I don't think he doesn't want to play ODI's. He just didn't want to play that series. And he got his way. Plus he's probably realised England may think they have a good ODI unit without him so is neither here nor there on if he gets picked.

I get the NZ Test series part, but Test cricket these days has pretty handy match payments so that wouldn't upset him all that much, with a longer term scenario being that he will miss very little IPL - if any - again from there.

Plus, if England felt like he was too much trouble there would be no delayed squad annoucement. He'd just have been excluded. He's pretty obviously now included so he got what he wanted - there hasn't been much doubt about his will to play Test cricket.

Realistsically, neither party really wins and they probably both know that. I'd say, though, that KP would be up on points from the whole scenario.

[fredfertang]

He's a typical spoilt child - pushes the boundaries as far as he can and retreats back as soon as he pushes them too far - of course by the age of 7 or 8 most have grown out of it, but the talented ones do have a tendency not to be able to shrug it off

[chaminda_00]

What battle has the ECB lost?

There haven't lost any credibility regarding their stance on player availability and potential for players to pick and choice what games they play.

They got their best batsmen available for the forceable future in all formats, if they want him.

Yeah he missed one ODI series, which they still won easy.

Ok maybe KP has a play to retire again from limited over matches after the T20 WC. But does that really matter for England, he is unlikely to be play on for the next ODI WC, so they had to phase him out eventually.

He may retire after the next Ashes, but that would be at about 2 years earlier then his potentially limit as Test cricketer.

The battle for ECB over IPL and player availability is likely to be a bigger issue then just KP. And they won the latest battle IMO.

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by AlanJLegend

I agree wholeheartedly.

Also, who was it on here that a month or so ago predicted that KP would make a limited overs comeback just before the T20 world cup, having missed the pointless series against Australia and no certainty to get back into the ODI side anyway?

I think it is definitely more

KP - 1
ECB - 0


He has pulled one over the ECB in a big way.

Are we blithely assuming the ECB will pick Pietersen for the T20 WC? I mean, I definitely would; I think there's a pretty strong case to make that he's the world's leading batsman in the format. However it's pretty obvious to even the casual obsever that Flower is no-one's fool and one doesn't average in the mid-50s whilst keeping wicket for a pretty ordinary test side without having a core of absolute iron. He might hide it well behind his (undoubtedly genuine) crashingly good-blokeness, but in a battle of wills with the mercurial and somewhat needy son of Pietermaritzburg I know where my money would go.

I suspect Flower (who I think calls the shots, despite what the selection panel and Giles Clarke would say) wouldn't like to think he's been bent over by anyone, so wouldn't take KP's presence for granted.

[grecian]

A win for KP? just to miss one series, he's had top make an humiliating and ridiculous about turn, he doesn't get any time off IPL, and has clearly made himself look a tit.

[uvelocity]

ahahah I love this saga

anyone who thinks it's over?

[GIMH]

Who cares who won, we still have KP

[uvelocity]

anderson doesnt seem 100% convinced

James Anderson: We didn't need this stand-off. The selectors must do what's best for the team | Mail Online

[MW1304]

That just confirms my worries really. Jimmy is clearly a bit miffed with KP despite the toned-down nature of these articles, and the whole issue has been a massive distraction. We can't be going into this game with the best possible preparation and that sucks.

[amanuensis]

I certainly wouldn't offer him a (12 month) central contract - I wouldn't be looking beyond the upcoming business in India frankly, so some sort of pro rata deal?

[uvelocity]

retire to t20 circus (assuming it still exists) after double ashes

[NasserFan207]

Said it before, will say it again, KP is just a big diva. Class player though, and will always be on the team sheet for Tests and T20s.