So Kevin Pietersen has not been selected for the English
Cricket Test team after scoring 356 not out.
What a missed opportunity - and it looks like another ECB
decisions from the twilight zone of Losersville.
KP is one of the most devastating upper middle order
batsmen in the world, an area of current (or is that perennial) weakness in the
English test team, the superb Joe Root aside. KP would have applied some steely
determination, arrogant swagger and never say die defiance to the otherwise
buttery vertebrae that currently constitute the curved spine of the unsettled
English test team ahead of one of the most important summers of test cricket.
For the Ashes are upon us, and that grail was poached by the enemy down under a
few years ago.
The Ashes start in July. For England and Australia,
winning this competition is the holy grail of test cricket. Forget about world
test rankings, or other test series, or the commercialised banality of
overhyped limited overs slog-fest yawns. The real, if unwritten, mission
statement for English ( and Australian) test cricket is "Win the
Ashes". Win it at all costs - everything else is secondary. Like no other player, KP is noticeably
salivating at the chance of getting to grips with the Aussie bowlers and
scoring big centuries against them. But no matter.
However, England's new director of cricket, Andrew
Strauss, says there is no trust between KP and the England and Wales Cricket
Board and therefore no place in the test team for him. I could be wrong of
course, but I don't think any members of that venerable board will actually be
out there on the hot pitch, facing the bouncing wrath of Shane Watson and trying to win the Ashes. So who
cares if they don't like each other. This gob-smacking decision appears to go
slashing, with cross-bat precision, across the only recent undertakings given
to KP about getting back his test place if he reverted to playing country cricket once more,
accompanied with all that "hail fellow, well met" back slapping talk
of slates being wiped clean and fresh starts. Adding insult to injury, in some
tragi-farce act of bumbling management incoherence, KP was then offered an
alternative option of advising England on one day cricket instead. Huh? Trusted
to advise the team but not play in it!? With nuanced aplomb, Strauss manages to
mix absurdity and contradiction without any sense of irony. But, no matter.
Well, so much for picking your best team to win. If we
had crushed the West Indies instead of meekly settling for the pointless
irrelevance of a drawn series; if we were regularly scoring 400 plus per
innings or our bowlers terrifying opposition batting orders, then perhaps there
would not be such an obvious need for KP.
If there was a burning zeal to take on and vanquish the Aussies, as
opposed to an "oh no, here we go again" trepidation, perhaps the team
would not need the OTT self confident and self belief KP brings. Yes, he often
comes across as a rather weirdly obnoxious individual with both feet in his
mouth at the same time, but that's the price, for he is also a giant
bowler-killing, match winner with that "I refuse to lose" arrogance
that rubs off on those about him (after all who can forget the sight of him
dancing down the pitch to that pie-chucker Glen McGrath and swatting one of his
mediocre lobs into outer space). And if it's not about winning against the
Aussies, then it's not about anything ( there are no Cups for losing with
dignity or for trying your best, or sticking to some ossified set of Victorian sporting
principles). If you don't win, then in so far as sporting history is concerned,
you may as well have not existed.
At least the Aussies will be pleased with Strauss'
decision.
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