Off Pietersen (So Long, Farewell, Goodnight)

I spat my wheatbix across the table when I read it: Kevin Pietersen effectively banned from playing
again for England in any form of cricket!

Of course, Pietersen and controversy are like Shane Warne and headlines ... you'll often find the two connected and it will never be the man with the obstructed vowels fault. Coming so close to the disappearance of Andy Flower and his calls for sanctions against Pietersen, its clear that there was trouble in the English camp during their disastrously long and unsuccessful tour during the southern summer. Rumours of a major blow up between Pietersen and his skipper, Alastair Cook, in the members bar at the SCG on the eve of the final crushing defeat for England, now become fact.

Its that key relationship which accounts for this extraordinary decision.

There is no escaping that Pietersen is a pain in the backside and would no doubt get under the skin of most of his team mates but he has always been the same. The difference is the change of England captain. Cook's tactical limitations were exposed on the field in Australia and in the series which preceded it in England. Think on his poor captaincy in field placings and choice of bowlers during the series victory on his home soil: the hour or so when Aston Agar cut loose as only one example.

Lack of tactical acumen is not his greatest weakness. This writer has stated before that he lacks the man management skills needed to be a leader. Having sat in Andrew Strauss' pocket, he learnt nothing.

Strauss welded a group of individuals into a team worthy of the number one spot on the ICC rankings. Since his departure, England have disintegrated - slowly at first as the weight of Cook's personal contribution bolstered them to a remarkable series win in India. In Australia, the inability of Andy Flower and Cook to concentrate on their special individuals, the blast furnace heat from the Australian bowlers and the Clarke/Lehmann tactic of being in the opponent's face, proved too much for all of them. Several have just fallen by the wayside. Jonothan Trott succumbed to a depressive illness he had previously managed. Graeme Swan left mid tour. Jimmy Anderson went from threat to laughing stock, undone by Michael Clarke's First Test challenge. England's 2013 Player of the Year, Matt Prior was dropped after three Tests, lacking in form and confidence, according to management and his replacement, Jonny Bairstow, averaged 12.

After losing 0-5, having his team fall apart and averaging only 24 himself, at what point will Cook be made to come to account?

Kevin Pietersen isn't England's best batsman. Ian Bell or Cook or Trott would vie for that mantel, but he is their most dangerous. Be at the ground and listen to the crowd. After the jeers die down, Pietersen always faces his first over to a hush. The punters know he's dangerous. They know a session at his best can take a Test match from you. There were no louder roars than each of the ten times he was dismissed this summer. Had Ian Chappell been his skipper, he would have known he was worth the risk because he wins matches.

He's not a team man. Perish the thought. He's arrogant, egotistical, flying one minute, crawling the next. He has been dropped because he's an individual and because his captain can't cut it. Cook, a product of the English class system thinks captaincy is his right, not his responsibility, so he's been off to the Head and had Pietersen expelled.

Of course, Australia can't be too harsh in our critique. Look what we did to Andrew Symonds and almost did to Mitch Johnson. The lesson shouldn't learned from the failures but rather from the successes. Would Warne have lasted to be a champion without Taylor and Waugh as his skippers? Sure Warne hates Steve Waugh for dropping him in the West Indies but it substantially got him back on track and extended his playing career by years. Ian Chappell had any number of "characters" in his side and never seemed to need to run home to mummy and complain when his nose got bloodied. His confrontation with Lillee which ended in fists being thrown just another example of good man management.

So England have excluded their highest ever run scoring international player. Only Graham Gooch and David Gower have more Test runs for the Three Lions and no Englishman has scored as fast as he: 61 runs per 100 balls. In Australia, he led the batting aggregates, was second in the averages and at least showed some spine in Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. But then, he hasn't been dropped on form ... well not his, at any rate. Its off to earn good rupees for a while yet, after all, he's only 33.

England, meanwhile, talk of rebuilding. To do so, they'll first have to clear contaminated rubble that bad management and languid preparation has left. The first task is another pointless ODI series, this time in the Caribbean, surely a good place to recuperate. Of course, Cook won't be there, exhausted and tired from Australia and safely out of the way, having made that announcement on 26th January. Pietersen issued the agreed statement one does if one wants to ensure their payout. Everybody will flap their wings for a while and not do a thing.

None of which fixes the problem. Based on what history tells us, England doesn't sack generals (Flower isn't English but resigned in that very English way).

To believe that this last month of English cricket wasn't time-lined in Sydney in the first few days of the New Year would be a failure to pay attention ...

... and every headline and new announcement makes Michael Clarke and Darren Lehmann smile broader in public and guffaw behind closed doors. They  didn't beat England, they destroyed them.