South Africa in England July-Sept 2012

[War]

He's not denied sending them; he's just refused to reveal the contents. Ultimately the ECB are to blame here for taking a one-size-fits all approach. Doubt either Gower or Botham would survive in the current setup.

Yea although since the ECB contract system was introduced in 2000 was indeed one of the best things to happen to English cricket - the rules that come with it clearly is a bit too inflexible.

It's funny how two adopted Englishmen (KP and Flower) are essentially in a battle, as to who is bigger and more important to the England team going forward.

 

[Haarithan]

You can blame the ECB. KP did everything that was asked of him. Bairstow to replace him.

Just no. The ECB wanted him to confirm that he did not send any derogatory texts involving the Andys to the South Africans, which he clearly didn't.

KP's my favorite cricketer, but I'm just glad with this decision of ECB's. No player is bigger than the team, and as Themer pointed out, to think KP was anything but an utter prat throughout the course of this controversy is beyond me. Yesterday's video was merely him clutching at straws, imho.

 

[fk915]

KP followed that twitter account as well. He even re-tweeted posts for crying out loud.

Thats exactly the point , if they are so much into discipline why in the first place they let this happen ... ECB know the history between KP & Peter Moore. ECB also know the stuff thats been going on in the dressing room ( this whole thing did not happen over night) ... first they let that happened now suddenly they realized its discipline issue. looks like to me bunch of English players are on one side and KP on the other. And its easy for ECB to penalize one player, kick him out and it will solve everything.

 

[MUFC1987]

Thats exactly the point , if they are so much into discipline why in the first place they let this happen ... ECB know the history between KP & Peter Moore. ECB also know the stuff thats been going on in the dressing room ( this whole thing did not happen over night) ... first they let that happened now suddenly they realized its discipline issue. looks like to me bunch of English players are on one side and KP on the other. And its easy for ECB to penalize one player, kick him out and it will solve everything.

There's a difference between following an account (which KP also followed, so he obviously saw no problem with it at the time) and slagging off your team-mates/management behind their backs.

 

[War]

Just no. The ECB wanted him to confirm that he did not send any derogatory texts involving the Andys to the South Africans, which he clearly didn't.

KP's my favorite cricketer, but I'm just glad with this decision of ECB's. No player is bigger than the team, and as Themer pointed out, to think KP was anything but an utter prat throughout the course of this controversy is beyond me. Yesterday's video was merely him clutching at straws, imho.

Nah i don't believe that, seemed pretty honest. The issue now apparently is confirmation as to whether he sent were insulting to players and ECB management to the Protea's players.

 

[barmyarmy]

Everyone moans about their bosses and colleagues in private. If your mates happen to be playing for the opposition then best to keep quiet but this comes down to a failure of man-management by the ECB. KP climbed down a lot for him last night and the ECB still decided to make an example of him.
Good teams have to be able to accommodate big personalities. The ECB and dare I say it Flower and Strauss are a little too obsessed with "discipline, discipline" and while cutting off your nose to spite your face is very English it's also a failure of management.

 

[War]

There's a difference between following an account (which KP also followed, so he obviously saw no problem with it at the time) and slagging off your team-mates/management behind their backs.

Hold on. We all use twitter and i follow alot of people (friends, famous sports people) organisations/sports who i'm not don't like or are fans of as well.

Twitter is something you check for updates, so maybe KP in his perplexity as to this fake account about him, simply followed it to see what was being said about him.

 

[barmyarmy]

Incidentally none of you lot are special. If you're rude about me to anyone I'll find out and ban you...

 

[Haarithan]

Anyway, that's England surrendering the #1 ranking to the Saffers, unless Bairstow or a modified 5 man bowling attack comes up with something quite extraordinary.

Predicting Strauss to step down after this series.

 

[MUFC1987]

There's also a difference between not liking someone and airing that view in a fashion so as they find out about it. I'm sure millions of people don't get on with their boss, but keep their mouth shut and their feelings to themselves and it's not a problem. But the ones who slag off their boss to others are the ones that cause themselves problems, as KP has done in this situation. He's stupid if he thinks these Texts weren't going to become known of in public and his refusal to just admit it and apologise is what's causing the problem here. It's about taking responsibility for your actions.

 

[Themer]

Barmy is a cock.

 

[barmyarmy]

Now see you did that to my face in public. Was going to give you my spare VIP ticket to Lord's but now...

 

[Themer]

Already have tickets booyah

----------

Not VIP admittedly.

 

[barmyarmy]

Nasser Hussain agrees with me. As I assume will most ex-players.

 

[Owzat]

Considering all his team 'mates' were asked to confirm the tw*tter account wasn't them, it is a bit rich him then refusing to confirm contents of texts to the opposition.

If England go into this Test with no KP and five bowlers then I reckon the saffers will win 2-0. The extra bowler will bounce off them like water off a duck's back, their bowlers will exploit the vulnerability of the England batsmen plus the inexperience within the side and it will be a disaster.

Why anyone truly would believe playing an extra bowler on a flat pitch will in any way enhance your chances of winning I do not know. Ironically KP was joint second highest England wicket taker in the series.

We need to play four bowlers, win the toss, bat first and bat well, post 450+ and just not make any mistakes with bat or in the field. It's how you win matches, not by playing five bowlers, not by playing silly shots, not by relying on Kevin Tw*eterson etc. You can't force a win, you have to do the basics and if you do them well you'll have chances to win matches and not lose many, a philosophy of Gooch's.

"If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail" - and no that isn't a Sphinx line from 'Mystery Men'


Does occur to me of course this could all have been set up on a plate by the saffers, they might have set the tw*tter thing up and also for the texts thing to have leaked would that not have had to come from/via the recipients..................?