06 January 2009

Captain Pietersen wants it all his own way – will he get it?

At the start of an Ashes year, the ongoing news story involving the dispute between England captain Kevin Pietersen and coach Peter Moores is far from ideal. The frosty relationship has left the future of England’s coaching team in doubt and means there is great uncertainty ahead of the West Indies tour.

Overall, it is fair to say that the England cricket team is in a small state of crisis. As well as the disagreements between captain and coach, there has been rumours of unrest in the camp, a divide in the opinion of players and perhaps most importantly – a poor run of results.

All of this has meant that even though Australia are being comfortably beaten at home by South Africa in response to their equally destructive defeat in India, England are the team in crisis. At this moment in time it seems as though Australia are in better shape ahead of this summer’s Ashes series. Considering the negativity surrounding their current form, that’s really saying something. All in all, the cricket odds will be expecting an extremely tight series.

Where has all this Moores / Pietersen stuff come from though? Well, the most significantly annoying factor is the fact that this has all come out in public. Captain’s and coaches have arguments about certain things and that is to be expected. Former England captain Nasser Hussain admits that he and Duncan Fletcher didn’t always see eye to eye for example.

So, that’s the first thing – it should have been dealt with behind closed doors. However, if we are being honest, there appears to be more to this than a simple disagreement. Moores and Pietersen’s differing views on the future of Michael Vaughan would have played their part, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

With Moores and Pietersen, there is quite simply a character clash. From the moment KP was appointed captain, I was concerned about his relationship with the relatively reserved and calm Moores. Pietersen is such a huge character that he will want nothing to stand in his way of getting success for this England team.

The Vaughan situation is an example. Pietersen wanted him back, Moores didn’t. Eventually, the coach got his way on this one, but will this be the case in the long term? I don’t think so. The captain of the team will have more power than the coach – it’s his team, it’s his players and it’s his decision making that will affect results.

This view is exaggerated when it’s a player and personality like Pietersen in charge. He isn’t going to want to be compromised by a Peter Moores decision and he won’t want to play second fiddle when it comes to selection. Pietersen wants to run his team in his own unique style and this will probably mean that Moores will have to move on.

The fact that Pietersen, a relatively new captain, has challenged the decision making of the coach says a lot about his personality and about his direct way of thinking. Will this will benefit the team as a whole though? Should the ECB put all their trust in KP to do things his way?

Let me know where you stand in this captain v coach row.

By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about cricket betting

3 comments:

John said...

Pietersen is pretty much the ONLY person in the England team who can be made captain. So if Pietersen won't go away...

guestblogger said...

Both have in fact now gone, incredible news!

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