Piers Morgan has given us a new coinage??EcbClowns?. Kevin Pietersen?s omission from the England team for India tour has irked this noted English broadcaster and journalist to the extent of comparing the England and Wales Cricket Board mandarins with court jesters.
Indeed, England are divided on the KP issue, with strong reactions coming from both quarters. Andy Flower and company have acted as moral police, keeping Pietersen out in the name of dressing room sanctity. The likes of Morgan have termed the decision ?laughable?, which borders on committing harakiri.
Needless to say that England would be weakened without their best batsman, for Pietersen would have been the only one to throw down the gauntlet at the Indian spinners on dust bowls.
The English cricket authorities, however, have maintained that they can?t compromise on ethics. According to them, the issue is broader than Pietersen sending some text messages to a couple of South African players on social networking site Twitter or mocking Andrew Strauss? authority as England captain. They said that it was about breaching the trust and letting down the team as a unit. So even after Strauss?s shock retirement, the door was not left ajar for the flambouyant middle order batsman.
Interestingly, by the same account, two other England players also have transgressed. Stuart Broad and Alex Hales were allegedly linked to the parody Twitter accounts that Pietersen found so offensive. The two, however, have been spared by the ECB.
Personally, Alastair Cook might have liked to have Pietersen on board for the India tour. He doesn?t have a fight with the senior batsman and would love to have a full strength squad on his debut series as a Test captain. The team has been on a freefall since last winter, lost the number one ranking and would be touring India as rank underdogs.
Cook?s main job will be to arrest the slide and he knows it would be extremely difficult without Pietersen?s cricketing skills. But walking on a banana skin he couldn?t muster the courage to drive home his point.
The crux of the matter is that Pietersen appears to be completely unperturbed. On his flight from London to Colombo he told former England fast bowler Jonathan Agnew that he felt ?as good as gold?. He also looked pretty dapper on his debut as a TV pundit.
For someone, who has lost his central contract, it?s surprising to see Pietersen remains so cheerful. But now money seems to have changed everything.
As long as he has an IPL contract, Pietersen knows he will be in an exalted position, to the envy of most of his England team mates. He reportedly has a $2 million contract with Delhi Daredevils, almost three times the amount that the ECB could offer, and now as a freelance T20 cricketer he has the opportunity to earn more from other cricket leagues. Little wonder that Pietersen is not sad.
Dressing room bust-ups are not new in cricket. Even Don Bradman?s ?invincibles? had to deal with this problem as Keith Miller never saw eye-to-eye with his captain.
There were big factions in other successful Australian teams as well.
Shane Warne allegedly described coach John Buchanan as ?verbal diarrhoea?, Adam Gilchrist had a fight with Michael Slater, Dennis Lillee never thought about consulting with Kim Hughes when the latter was the captain and the list goes on.
In the other teams also dressing room discords often made big stories.
Bishan Singh Bedi and skipper Ajit Wadekar almost came to blows during the summer of ?74 in England. Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev had their own camps in the 1980s, Mohammad Azharuddin had been accused of not cooperating with Sachin Tendulkar during the latter?s turbulent years as India captain.
The World Cup-winning Pakistan team had a problem off the field, answering to the name of Javed Miandad. Later, a group of players revolted against Wasim Akram when he was the captain.
It was all about big egos but dissents had never turned into renegades in the past, for the cricketers had very little options other than playing for the country. The advent of multi-million dollar cricket leagues has changed the scenario. It?s almost like football now, where some players have scant respect for their national teams as club commitments top the agenda.
Pietersen has accused the England cricket bosses of being jealous about the IPL. He has also demanded a separate window for the tournament.
Chris Gayle, too, had spoken on the same lines when he was at loggerheads with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The Board had asked him to apologise for his alleged barb against coach Ottis Gibson. But the southpaw gave it a damn, happily playing in the IPL and the Big Bash league. The two parties now have called truce and Gayle is back to the West Indies fold. Under pressure, the WICB had to bite the bullet to accommodate him. And it would be surprising if something similar doesn?t happen with Pietersen in the near future.
Is Indian cricket immune to such controversies? The BCCI has dealt the phenomenon of player power with iron hand and such a situation appears unthinkable at the moment. The monetary gains of the Indian cricketers are directly related to their association with the Indian cricket board, and the BCCI as an organisation also enjoys arbitrary power.
But nothing is static in life and sport and things can change fast. It was Gayle yesterday and Pietersen today. Who knows it won?t be Virat Kohli tomorrow.