Cricket chiefs duck the issue

THERE is nothing like a crisis to bring out the worst in sports administrators.

The Kevin Pietersen debacle of the past week had the blazered buffoons at the England and Wales Cricket Board floundering like Geoff Boycott in a freestyle rap contest.

In the end, with the animosity between the captain and coach Peter Moores becoming public knowledge, the powers-that-be felt the need to remove them both.

That’s right, both: England’s best batsman since Boycott, who had quickly blossomed as the team’s leader in chief, together with a decent yet thoroughly out-of-his-depth pen-pushing coach.

Apparently, so we are continually told, there was no choice. By this, the ECB gin-suppers presumably mean that their sense of propriety is hardwired, so that any deviance along the route marked ‘common sense’ is impossible.

The ECB’s line may not bring success. In fact, it mostly doesn’t. But by goodness, at least nobody’s pride is touched. Impeccable manners are far more important than trophies, say those who steadfastly wear jackets and ties in the member’s enclosure even during summer heatwaves.

In reality, there was a clear choice. Instead of removing both men, go with the plea made by Pietersen — the increasingly responsible renegade who, after being made captain, had a responsibility to do everything in his power to try to bring about success for England.

Press leak or no press leak, the proper course of action would have been to simply remove Moores ahead of the West Indies tour. Who would have complained?

It is hard to believe that many of KP’s team-mates would have objected too strongly — the ambitious ones at least. And as for the rest who are more comfortable with the soundbites and mediocrity that have characterised the former Sussex coach’s reign. Well, with an Ashes series coming up we can do without them, frankly.

Many complain about Pietersen’s ego being over-inflated. Personally, I don’t care. The man backs up the daft haircuts, the outlandish switch-hits and the bravado by being absolutely brilliant.

The tragedy is, Kevin Pietersen being a born winner means that he was always going to be unsuitable to be the captain of the England cricket team.




MANCHESTER United have hardly slipped their well-oiled machine into fifth gear this season but still look best-placed to land another Premier League title.



Flimsy Chelsea hardly proved much of an obstacle to negotiate on Sunday — unlike the tunnel wall which damaged Cristiano Ronaldo’s Ferrari last week.

The Portuguese winger’s motor doesn’t look so flashy now and while using it as a metaphor to describe the out-of-touch 23-year-old’s recent performances may be overstating it a bit, he is nowhere near the heights hit last season.

Similarly, promising young duo Anderson and Nani have both gone backwards of late, while £30million striker Dimitar Berbatov has been a major disappointment since strolling in from Tottenham.

There is certainly much more still to come from Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

For the moment, the United boss is fortunate that the other big four contenders are respectively terrified of attacking (Liverpool), as narrow as their boss’s English vocabulary (Chelsea) and as weak in the centre, albeit as tasty to savour, as a chocolate fondant cake (Arsenal).