It's Tough Being Me - The Kevin Pietersen Story

[grecian]

Pietersen has an ego, no doubt, but mediocrity usually finds a way to pull genius down to its level. KP has never been one to keep his opinions to himself and it was his luck to be involved with the typical modern-day, politically correct organizational set-up that wouldn't be shy of monitoring their employee's bowel movements. There is rat involved on both sides but the difference is that Pietersen will admit his ****ups to a degree while the ECB never will.

Isn't he the one playing the PC card? I was bullied, boo-hoo.

As for him admitting mistakes, well we've been over this one.

EDIT: Actually it's one of my pet-hates things being called PC just because you don't agree with it. The phrase has lost all meaning whatsoever. So I wouldn't call KP, politically-correct myself. Yet if one side was it's probably him.

 

[theegyptian]

Reading this review of him on Graham Norton (Kevin Pietersen left stumped by Graham Norton chat - Telegraph) in which it sounds like he had a pretty tough time, I couldn't help but think of the Iain O'Brien article Iain O'Brien: Cricketers' arrogance is often insecurity | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

Seems to me that KP is almost too proud to ever explore these kind of feelings and put them down in a book. O'Brien seemingly eventually looked at some of these issues and began to accept them and challenge them. KP seems too proud to really accept that he has made mistakes and begin to look at some of these issues and why most people dislike him and fall out with him. Maybe these issues are so deep rooted with KP that he really believes everything he says and writes. Maybe this isn't part of the issue at all.

The contrast in books from Roy Keane to KP is startling. Both controversial figures but you feel that Keane writes in the book what he really thinks - regardless of what people will think of him as a result. For instance Keane admits to being grateful that a player had a heart attack because it deflected pressure from him. However KP's book seems to just lack the real introspection that a good autobiography should have - or maybe deep down he really does believe everything he wrote and the problem was almost excusively that of somebody else.

Maybe in time KP will come to the conclusion that he made problems that he didn't have to make and that could have been avoided. Hopefully the ECB will look at their handling of talent and the the bad pubilicity of the last few years and work to improve and make better decisions also. You get the feeling at the moment though that the hate between the two (KP and ECB/Flower) are clouding the better judgements of both sides.



The Prior thing strikes me possibly as jealousy on KP's part. KP saw similarities in himself in Prior (ego) but rather than being disliked, Prior was actually liked by nearly everyone inside and outside the England camp.

 

[harsh.ag]

Prior is known as a **** though. But then again, if Kohli doesn't like you, you must be doing something right.

 

[theegyptian]

Prior is known as a **** though. But then again, if Kohli doesn't like you, you must be doing something right.

By the opposition. I don't think there are many inside the england camp or outside in the English press who disliked him.

It's the same with Kohli or Warner. Disliked by opposition and fans but generally these players are loved in their own dressing room.

KP possibly craved the same kind of adulation within the England dressing room but never really go it- possibly because the players thought he was more pre occupied with himself rather than the team.

 

[grecian]

Prior is known as a **** though. But then again, if Kohli doesn't like you, you must be doing something right.

Is he? Until this all blew up I had no idea, genuinely. I know Vic said something but it really wasn't common knowledge. He did seem popular in the team amongst almost everyone.

'keepers are generally a bit mouthy though.....

 

[sledger]

Have never particularly liked him or disliked him myself. Well, not since he actually became a decent player anyway. Disliked him because he was rubbish and had nothing else to recommend him early on.

 

[FBU]

Prior changed once he was made vice-captain. The way I saw it was that he controlled Cook whereas KP liked to do that.

KP wanting to come back.
Kevin Pietersen claims he loves Surrey and will not rule out a return to county cricket  | Daily Mail Online

 

[Flem274*]

Martin Crowe put the boot in.

 

[Langeveldt]

Yeah I enjoyed Crowe's piece.. It really is a sad state of affairs, two wrongs definitely not making a right. Everything has been discussed to death, but three points come to mind.

1- Taking the spotlight away from KP slightly regarding England's fortunes, has one player (Mitchell Johnson), ever had more of an impact on the direction an opposing nation's cricket team has taken? Bradman and Tendulkar have obviously shaped their respective nation's fortunes for good, but has anyone decimated half an opposing team's careers on their own before? Okay they were a force on the wane anyway, but the destruction from early this year was clinical, and has made for box office viewing. KP's book has only dug deeper into the wounds opened by Johnson.

2 - Not many people have mentioned that more than one team KP has played for has resulted in an acrimonious end. The arguments for and against have been far too England-centric, but since Natal we have all known him to be a sensitive and abrasive character. Not much mention of Jasion Gallian and Nottinghamshire. I don't think Surrey are too happy with their investment in the "reintegration of KP" bearing minimal returns.

3 - Giles Clarke and the ECB are a bunch of tossers

3b - A little known fact is that KP comes back to SA regularly and drives around in a sponsored car with his name on the side. The PR machine never slows down, even when on holiday.

 

[hendrix]

I wasn't expecting to like Crowe's article as I generally feel that Crowe has no knowledge of the details of the situation, but he made some pretty good points.

 

[Jono]

1- Taking the spotlight away from KP slightly regarding England's fortunes, has one player (Mitchell Johnson), ever had more of an impact on the direction an opposing nation's cricket team has taken? Bradman and Tendulkar have obviously shaped their respective nation's fortunes for good, but has anyone decimated half an opposing team's careers on their own before? Okay they were a force on the wane anyway, but the destruction from early this year was clinical, and has made for box office viewing. KP's book has only dug deeper into the wounds opened by Johnson.

Haha, this is such an excellent point.

 

[indiaholic]

So I found this: https://twitter.com/fwildecricket/status/524895540191182848/photo/1

Pretty good stuff. Thought this described Ponting's batting against all bowling.

 

[_Ed_]

I wasn't expecting to like Crowe's article as I generally feel that Crowe has no knowledge of the details of the situation, but he made some pretty good points.

Yeah, he did. I liked the article too. There's one thing I would say, though:

"Okay, so the leadership stint didn't work. Did he show the maturity to accept it and move on for the sake of his team, his country of choice? Or did he become judgemental of everything around him and, in doing so, lose the ability to move on from the sabotaging self he was?"

I think he could possibly have put a Ross Taylor comparison in here.

 

[Furball]

I actually wonder how much the England dressing room missed Paul Collingwood.

It's something that just came to me when I was searching for an image to reply with in the AB de Villiers thread; he doesn't get much of a mention in KP's autobiography save for KP describing him as "my best ever batting partner" and a brief mention when KP discusses the circumstances that led to him getting the captaincy.

Not altogether surprising seeing as the book is a massive whinge on KP's part, but it's intriguing. The results etc also really seemed to go to **** once Collingwood retired - I know people will point out the India home series came post Colly, but come on, that was hardly a stern test.

 

[GIMH]

Obviously having Colly of prior to 2010 (excluding 08) would have helped with all the collapses we suffered from early 2012 onwards.

Not sure beyond that. Suppose he does seem like the type who could help keep a dressing room unified.

 

[Cabinet96]

Not sure I'll ever know how England managed to fight back from 1-0 down in India to win amid the chaos around that time.

 

[Furball]

Obviously having Colly of prior to 2010 (excluding 08) would have helped with all the collapses we suffered from early 2012 onwards.

Not sure beyond that. Suppose he does seem like the type who could help keep a dressing room unified.

Yeah I'm not considering Collingwood's on field ability at all when posting that. It's just that considering KP's version of events (and I appreciate that a large dosage of salt is required), the dressing room didn't really start to go downhill until after Collingwood retired. Most of KP's gripes between losing the captaincy and Collingwood's retirement seem to be centred on Andy Flower being a wanker and Flower/upper management not understanding what makes KP tick and not making some minor concessions that would've helped get a bit more out of KP (not letting him go home for a couple of days when in the Caribbean, announcing his absence from the Pakistan ODI series as a dropping rather than as a resting etc). The fact England were winning also seems to have kept the dressing room somewhat united; once a few defeats started occuring in 2012 is where the cracks started to appear.

Plus, Collingwood seems to me to be the type who wouldn't stand for much of the divisive ****, was probably liked and respected by most people in the dressing room and would've used that position to keep some sort of order. Consider the more senior players left once Collingwood went; Bell's supposedly quite passive in the dressing room (allegedly part of the reason why Flower ignored Pietersen's suggestion to make Bell, not Prior VC), Pietersen's a bit self obsessed and aloof and Cook isn't particularly assertive, hence there wasn't really someone to stand up to the "bowling clique" that formed.

As for Cabinet's point about India, I think the dressing room would probably have been ok on that tour because everyone involved would have made the effort.

 

[Pothas]

Always thought it would have been interested to see what would have happened if Collingwood had become captain instead of KP. Never really clear on what happened there, was he offered the test captaincy and turned it down and so gave away the ODI captaincy as well?

 

[Furball]

Always thought it would have been interested to see what would have happened if Collingwood had become captain instead of KP. Never really clear on what happened there, was he offered the test captaincy and turned it down and so gave away the ODI captaincy as well?

Collingwood resigned the ODI captaincy about an hour after Vaughan gave the Test captaincy away.

KP initially got the ODI captaincy because Collingwood got a 4 game ban for slow over rates. Pretty sure Collingwood either got dropped or at the very least was having his place seriously questioned during the South Africa series as well - in any case he barely merited his place. The ECB also decided that they wanted the captain to be captain across all 3 formats, which saw KP get it pretty much by default.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah I was in Australia that summer so missed pretty much all of it but remember that he made a ton to save his spot.

I just wonder if he had not resigned the ODI captaincy if he would have got the job across all formats or not.