Holloway mourns death of student - The Founder

The Founder | Thursday 15 January 2009
Sport
21
Can the phoenix of English cricket rise again?
Bobby Thomas
So here we stand again. The ruins
of English cricket lain at our feet,
or so the tabloids (especially the
Australian ones) would have us believe.
Ricky Ponting will have had a
smile as wide as the Sydney Opera
House for the last few days, a sickening
thought indeed, and you’ll no
doubt be equally sick of this story
by the time you come to read this.
The news and papers have been
unrelenting in their coverage of it
right from the morning Sky News
botched their so-called scoop of
the whole affair. Reliable ‘Sky News
sources’ soon became mere ‘reportedly’s’
as the matter became more
and more nebulous. And you can
understand their confusion. Seemingly
in the four weeks since brave
KP took his boys to India in the face
of terrorism he has become ‘English
Crickets Most Hated Man’, according
to The Sun anyway. This is of
course utter nonsense. The idea that
he has conducted this whole thing
through the media is pure tripe. The
only comment he ever made was in
his own column in the News of the
World: “Obviously this situation is
not healthy; we have to make sure
it is settled as soon as possible and
certainly before we fly off to the
West Indies”. Hardly a sensation.
What he attempted was a bold
coup to oust a man he saw as unfit
for the job. Everything was done
behind closed doors. The news that
he was allegedly attempting to persuade
Shane Warne and his team
from the Rajasthan Royals to take
the job (we’ll never know for sure,
Warny is remaining tight lipped,
the day before all hell broke loose
I heard Bill Lawry questioning
Warne on reports that he had been
approached, and they were swiftly
denied) only makes me think that
he was on the right track, if only
everything had gone to plan. The
problem is that things ran far from
smoothly. Evidently not all the players
were behind him (Flintoff ’s dislike
for him has never been much of
a secret, nor has Harmison’s), and he
valued his own place as captain too
highly. No one player is bigger than
English Cricket, not even the Captain.
The ECB decided that either
they both stay or they both go. They
evidently took one look at Moores’
record and the rest is history. You
have to feel sorry for both of them.
Moores was a methodical coach and
a ‘good bloke’, but patently not up to
such a grand task. In addition, Pietersen
has an ego to match his talent
and this time it has cost him more
than his wicket. Right now no one
will feel worse than him. Having lost
the captaincy once it is extremely
unlikely he will be asked again.
But despite this I beg of all of
you not to hate Kevin Pietersen for
this unholy disarray. Here you have
a man who is at the heart of where
English cricket needs to be. His bristling
talent is one of our greatest assets.
If you removed him from the
batting line up a faltering team starts
to look on its last legs. The best thing
the world can do is to leave KP alone.
Moores will get another job and Kev
has pledged his undying allegiance
to the team. Time to let sleeping
dogs lie. The real mission now is
not in picking apart what might and
might not have happened, the rights
and the wrongs of men as fallible as
anyone else and unfairly susceptible
to a whole bevy of abuse from the
media.
How does England go forward?
Well by now it will be close to the
Windies tests and Andrew Strauss
has been named as Captain, unless
some other scandal has arisen, and
he has been accused by The Sun or
the Daily Mail of being an illegal
immigrant or a paedophilic happy
slapper. Arguably he should have
been made test captain in the first
place. He was certainly the next in
line and had already proved his capability
by beating Pakistan 3-0 in
2006 and the West Indies in the first
test of the 2007 series. However, his
own poor form in the shorter format
of the game and his slow approach
ultimately led to his exclusion from
the One Day side permanently.
Prior to Vaughan’s departure a year
later his batting in all forms of the
game was in the doldrums. The
ECB’s desire to unify the captaincy
after Collingwood’s disastrous tenure
was the final nail in the coffin for
him. KP was the best option available
to them, and a damn fine one
he was too.If only he had been given
more time I am sure he would have
performed wonders; but alas, we
shall never know. So we come full
circle to Strauss, back in form with
a modified (if deathly boring) technique
and undoubtedly a shrewder
tactician than Pietersen. The whole
reason KP wanted Michael Vaughan
back in the team was to make up for
his own lack of experience, having
his old Captains extensive knowledge
to hand would surely have
seemed an attractive proposition.
It would also perhaps have served
a dual purpose in giving the out of
form Ian Bell something to think
about.
The real question we must now
ask is how on earth can Strauss also
captain the ODI side? He has been
left out for over a year now and even
if he is captain how can he justify his
role in the team? The last thing England
needs is a slow opener bogging
down proceedings. This is the era of
Hayden’s, McCullums and Sehwags.
Regardless of his one day shortcomings,
Strauss is fully capable of being
an excellent Test captain; perhaps
the ECB should not have balked
at the idea of a split captaincy five
months ago. Pietersen could have
relaxed into his batting during
Tests, and steadily learned the ropes,
whilst trying his strength in command
of the ODI team. We’ll never
know. England fans: now is the time
for unity, love your team, have faith
in the captain and for God’s sake,
ignore the papers; KP is our switch
hitting salvation. And for all you
doubters out there just think back
to 1981 (or look it up on YouTube
or Wikipedia if you weren’t born
then): Botham’s Ashes (he said with
a tear gleaming in his eye). Through
all the furore and hopelessness we
arose once more, the phoenix from
the Ashes…
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