The Cricket Thread

[Ankit 3,176]

Apparently he was sending dissenting text messages, and Flower/ECB didn't like that.

Also it's surprising just how poor England are against spin, considering their coach is one of the greatest players of spin of all time, and certainly the greatest player of spin not from the subcontinent. He once scored 550 runs against India, in India, in just 4 innings, and he was only dismissed twice

Why would he send dissenting messages about his team/board? Certainly doesnt look like that kind of a chap!! May be there is a second side to the whole story.

Regarding Andy Flower, I gotta be honest he was a constant pain in the arse for every indian everytime we played Zimbabwe. It was always the case of getting him out and winning the match and most of the times he found some good partner(Alistair Campbell, Grant Flower) and would play the spin so comfortably and spoil the party.

Flower was the best batsman from the nation and was the only one who could stand against any attack anywhere.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Why would he send dissenting messages about his team/board? Certainly doesnt look like that kind of a chap!! May be there is a second side to the whole story.

Regarding Andy Flower, I gotta be honest he was a constant pain in the arse for every indian everytime we played Zimbabwe. It was always the case of getting him out and winning the match and most of the times he found some good partner(Alistair Campbell, Grant Flower) and would play the spin so comfortably and spoil the party.

Flower was the best batsman from the nation and was the only one who could stand against any attack anywhere.

Haha, in total, he scored 1138 runs against India at an average of 94. Which went up to a mind boggling 117 whenever he played in India. Funnily he struggled in Pakistan (relatively) and Sri Lanka.

Pietersen apparently sent texts criticising Flower, Strauss and other team mates in a derogatory manner to the South African team.

Cricinfo have a great little piece on it:

May 31, 2012

Kevin Pietersen retires from all international limited-overs cricket with immediate effect because of "the intensity of the international schedule". He remains available for consideration as a Test match player. The news comes four months before England defend their World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka and follows failed negotiations between the England officials and Pietersen during the Lord's Test against West Indies. The sticking point is England's insistence that Pietersen must be available for all ODIs, as required, as well as Twenty20.

June 13, 2012

Pietersen receives support from an unlikely corner:his England team-mate Graeme Swann. "There comes a time when you get towards the end of your career, into your thirties, when something's got to give," Swann says. "You can flog yourself to death and fall to pieces or you can start to be quite wise and make a pragmatic decision. I can understand where he's coming from because there's certainly times I look at a schedule and just think: 'How can I do this? My body's killing me. I haven't seen my kids, my wife is ready to get up and walk out because I'm never here.' We're human beings at the end of the day."

July 13, 2012

After making a scintillating unbeaten 234 for Surrey at Guildford, Pietersen tells ESPNcricinfo that he would "love to play all forms of cricket for England for another three or four years" and reiterated his desire to be included in England's World Twenty20 squad. Pietersen, fresh from meetings with ECB officials, including Hugh Morris, the managing director of English cricket, complains: "I needed to get away from the schedule. I cannot keep playing every single day's cricket. I've never been looked after."

July 15, 2012

Days before England are due to announce their initial squad of 30 for the World Twenty20, England's director of cricket, Andy Flower, offers Pietersen little hope of a way back. "The situation is the same as it was when he first approached us," he says. "The ECB are determined to protect all three formats of the game and part of that is not setting a precedent of allowing players to retire from one-day cricket alone. The intent behind it is that we are serving English cricket in its entirety. We have to take personalities out of the equation."

July 18, 2012

Pietersen, who was Player of the Tournament when England won the World T20 in the Caribbean in 2010 - the only global trophy they have ever won - is omitted from England's provisional 30-man squad for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka in September. But it is confirmed that players can be brought into the final 15 from outside the squad with good reason.

July 28, 2012

Starved of all forms of England one-day cricket, Pietersen is believed to be considering a deal to play in Australia's Big Bash League, with the Melbourne Renegades and both Sydney sides - the Sixers and the Thunder - contesting his signature. Mike McKenna, Cricket Australia's commercial general manager and the project manager of the BBL, said: "He is definitely one of the top three or four global cricket stars at the moment. He's an explosive batsman, can bowl, and he would bring a charisma to the Big Bash League."

August 4, 2012

Pietersen plays one of Test cricket's greatest attacking innings. An audacious unbeaten 149 against South Africa on the third day of the second Test at Headingley lifts England's spirits. They go on to draw the second Test to stay 1-0 down in the series with one to play. Pietersen becomes the quickest player, in terms of time, to 7000 Test runs.

August 6, 2012

Pietersen is enticed into an extraordinary press conference after the Headingley Test in which he says he cannot give any assurances that the next Test at Lord's won't be his last. "I'd like to carry on but there are obstacles that need to be worked out. There are other points I'm trying to sort out in the dressing room," he says. Implied criticism of his England team-mates attracts heavy criticism in the English media and tips many cricket followers into heated pro and anti Pietersen camps.

August 8, 2012

Another twist in an increasingly unlikely saga as Pietersen is revealed to be upset over a parody Twitter account @KevPietersen24 - which mocks his egotistical style and which he suspects emanates from the England dressing room. Documentation seen by ESPNcricinfo proves that the account is not directly managed by a player. The account is later closed.

August 10, 2012

Another sub-text in a story that is careering out of control. Pietersen's texts to South African players after the Headingley Test hint at his growing isolation in the England dressing room. English newspapers claim that the captain, Andrew Strauss, was criticised, but provide no evidence and South African officials describe the texts as "just banter." But England players and selectors are quick to take offence at any imagined slight.

August 11, 2012

Pietersen goes to the extrordinary lengths of issuing a video interview on YouTube in which he expresses full commitment to England and makes himself available for all three forms of the game. The England selectors respond by delaying the announcement of their squad for the final Test against South Africa at Lord's, due at 9.30am the following day, by five hours.

August 12, 2012

England leave Pietersen out of the squad for the Lord's Test, saying that he had been unable to provide an undertaking that he had not sent text messages to South Africa players that were "derogatery" about people in the England set-up. Hugh Morris, managing director of England, said: "The success of the England team has been built on a unity of purpose and trust."

[Madmax 9,219]

This thread is cap's bitch. He posts when we wants.

[Ankit 3,176]

Fair Enough, then!!

I found another article. The author seems to talk sense as well. Give it a read.

http://cricketwithballs.com/2012/08/13/kp-trust-and-unity/

[Ankit 3,176]

On this day Bradman got the duck that left him stranded on 99.94, Tendulkar hit his maiden Test ton at 17.

http://www.espncrici...ory/149478.html

[capriccioso 2,545]

On this day Bradman got the duck that left him stranded on 99.94, Tendulkar hit his maiden Test ton at 17.

http://www.espncrici...ory/149478.html

Sachin looks so young!

South Africa batting first. Seems to be a batsman friendly wicket at Lords.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Bugger.

Duminy to come and that's all the batsmen out of the way.

[Ankit 3,176]

South Africa batting first. Seems to be a batsman friendly wicket at Lords.

Ah! Lords. Everything about Lords just epitomises the beauty of Test Cricket. A beautiful Dravid (Insert your fav player name) square drive(Inser his fav shot) and a gentle round of applause around the stadium. Or a Wasim akram outs swing whistling past the Batsman's bat and ooohhh in the background.

T20 cricket can take a back seat and stay there.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Controversy here. Kallis was given not out after an appeal, England challenged the decision, and the third umpire gave an absolute howler of a decision by giving it out.

Why bother with DRS if the third umpire is a wanker?

[Duppy Conqueror 1,532]

good morning session from England..still in the balance tho in the afternoon.. South Africa..79-4 England need to get into the tail a.s.a.p.

[Drogzola 283]

good morning session from England..still in the balance tho in the afternoon.. South Africa..79-4 England need to get into the tail a.s.a.p.

Lets hope our tail has a bit of a sting in it.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,532]

no sting..just honey please.

[Drogzola 283]

Seems it had a sting

[capriccioso 2,545]

Steyn is a pretty fair test batsman, I think they can get to 300. But this is the vital partnership to break, Morkel and Tahir don't know which end of the bat faces up.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

That Kallis decision was awful. I was screaming at the television yesterday haha! Sound like a United fan don't I?