There was always a certain inevitability about all of this. Many who read this blog, many who know me in person, would accuse me of being an apologist for Kevin Pietersen. I don’t exactly hide my admiration for his talent and his attitude (thus far) and the fact is that England don’t have many players average over 50 for us to be cavalier with. But England’s cricket authorities, in showing their teeth to Pietersen who appeared far more sinned against than sinner in the shenanigans earlier in the year, have now put that talent in jeopardy because, from behind this computer screen, KP is finally showing all the signs of sulking.

 

Clearly this tour has been a poor one for all concerned. England have long believed that they only had to turn up to beat this West Indies team when the facts never backed up this highly inflated opinion of themselves. The England team believe they can turn it on as and when, but that injection of hope comes in short bursts, not for a whole test match. As for the one dayers, quite frankly I don’t know why we bother. If they are tacked on at the end of a tour, everyone moans they want to get home and we lose the series. If they are at the start of a series, everyone moans that the test team don’t get enough practice, or else the tour seems to become too long. Whatever, KP has clearly got the hump that we are losing and that his performances, although pretty good in the tests, have not been up to scratch in the one-dayers.

 

On asking to go home, and on this being made public yet again, the protagonists are wrong. So is KP saying he is “at the end of his tether” and that he “would do a Robinho” or that he “can’t wait to get home”. What the hell is he playing at? For crying out loud there are millions who would love to be in your shoes, mate, and you come out with this self-serving, woe is me bollocks? I know that South Africans and KP in particular have a reputation for being hard-nosed, I-don’t-give-a-fuck what you think type of people, but really… Are you missing a shag that much?

 

But I lay much of the blame for this on the ECB and their stupidity in firing the bloke. It was Lyndon Baines Johnson who said he’d rather have J Edgar Hoover “inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in” and by expelling KP from the captaincy because it appears he followed precisely what the ECB wanted him to do before someone decided to leak the missive and make it look like the captain was giving out an ultimatum, they’ve got KP outside of the hierarchy and we could lose him. Once he gets a taste of the filthy IPL lucre, all those blandishments about “wanting to score runs for England more than anything in the world” may well take a back seat to how well Bangalore are looking after him, and how he loves the 20/20 excitement. It was almost an acknowledgement to the KPs and Freddies of this world that by having the Stanford Series they would stop these players from going to the IPL which will always clash with England’s early season tests. KP was always the more likely troublemaker, and by giving him the captaincy, he’d also have a pretty large moral responsibility to be in the best shape he could be for his main prestigious job. Now what moral responsibility does he have to an employer who shit all over him from a great height?

 

Clearly he’s pissed off. Worst of all he’s showing it. Paul Newman and Nasser Hussain didn’t appear to need to egg him on too much to get him to show his morose side. “What would you do if asked to captain the 20/20 side?” “No.” Do you think you’ll ever be England captain again?” “Don’t want it”. In fact, the bit of the interview that I raised my eyebrows at was his failure to back Strauss over the two declarations saying “I would have done things differently, maybe”. The one bloke above all who has come out of this tour with his head held high, with his reputation enhanced and his position unquestioned is Andrew Strauss. Three test tons, one one day ton and last night’s swashbuckling 79 not out have meant he’s been our best test player and best one day player too. I think KP should wind his neck in on that front too.

 

I’m not one for sanitising people’s comments, and all that party line stuff gets tedious. Strauss would be well within his rights to tell Pietersen to fuck off and take that black cloud looming over him with him too. He’s clearly mentally elsewhere, and I don’t buy all this tiredness cobblers. KP is a bloke with the sulks, I recognise the signs because I do it too as my wife can attest. On TV yesterday Hussain and Lloyd politely laid into Pietersen saying he is “inconsistent” and says one thing one minute and then something else the next. Fine, he’s not a politician, nor is he a lawyer, but what I do expect from a sportsman, playing his cricket in a beautiful part of the world with all mod cons at his disposal is to quit moaning about how bad his life is. We want our sportsman to be winners, not whingers.

 

The ECB brought this on, upsetting their top man, and now the ego has taken over and the bruising is coming out piled upon some sort of justification for his own cause in the poor tour we’ve had since. KP is using up a lot of goodwill here, and should not expect the public to understand when he complains about loneliness and tiredness on this tour, and then he naffs off to South Africa to pick up his millions in the IPL. I give it until next year before he misses test matches and plays for money instead. Whether the ECB actually thought of this when they treated him like they did is another thing. It doesn’t absolve KP of responsibility for what he’s doing now. When’s the book coming out, mate?