New ECB chief puts blame on Pietersen
WI TH just five days to go until England’s first Test match of the summer against New Zealand at Lord’s, the soap opera surrounding Kevin Pietersen shows no signs of abating.
Colin Graves, who officially took office as the new ECB chairman on Thursday, attempted to draw a line under the issue with a strong denial of claims he had lied to the controversial batsman about his chances of an international return.
But at the end of a week when Pietersen scored a career-best triple century for Surrey, and was also blackballed once again by the ECB on grounds of ‘trust’ — only to rally against the decision by claiming he had been ‘ misled’ and ‘deceived’ — Graves’ words actually present more questions than answers.
Indeed, it was Graves’ comments back in March that reopened the debate over a player who was sacked 15 months ago after England’s farcical Ashes whitewash in Australia.
Despite the explosive book released by Pietersen last October, Graves suggested an international return was possible if he scored consistent runs in county cricket.
‘ Forget personalities,’ Graves said at the time. ‘Selectors pick the best players in form, taki ng wickets and scoring runs. That is their job.’
Pietersen claims that Graves reiterated that point to him in a subsequent phone conversation and that’s why he negotiated a way out of his Indian Premier League contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad to sign for Surrey.
Yet on Monday evening, just hours after he scored that triple hundred against Leicestershire, Pietersen was told by Andrew Strauss, England’s new director of cricket, and Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, he would not be picked this summer.
The timing of the news, and the fact it was delivered by Strauss — a man who had been caught calling him a ‘ c***’ off- camera while commentating for Sky Sports last summer — resulted in a public relations disaster for the ECB, with the backlash inflamed by Pietersen’s newspaper column openly questioning the integrity of Graves, Harrison and Strauss. Graves released a statement on t he ECB website yesterday t hat i nsi st e d Pietersen had ‘ misunderstood ’ their conversation in March.
It read: ‘In the past few days my integrity has been called into question, something I can’t accept. Throughout my business career and my years as chairman of Yorkshire, integrity has been my watchword. It governs everything I do and is an important part of what I bring to the ECB. So it saddens me that what was a private conversation with Kevin in March has been used to do just that. I did not make any promises.
‘There were no guarantees that if he chose to exit his IPL contract, play county cricket and score runs, he would be selected for England.
‘ Something has clearly been misunderstood ar o und t he conversation and in the following debate.’
When contacted by Sportsmail yesterday, the ECB failed to clarify why Graves didn’t clear up this ‘ misunderstanding ’ in the intervening two months, a period which saw Pietersen cancel his IPL deal to play first-class cricket in a bid to regain his England place.
‘Ahead of a busy summer of cricket, a clear decision needed to be taken,’ added Graves. ‘Given the history and Kevin’s book, the simple fact is that bridges have still not been rebuilt and trust needs to be restored. That takes time.
‘Kevin was told on Monday and I completely support the decision that was taken. He may not have liked what he heard, but it allowed him to look at his opportunities.
‘Despite everything, he can work with us to rebuild the relationship and make a further contribution to English cricket.’
Now, after the PR shambles of the past week, which also included the bungled sacking of coach Peter Moores, moving forward is going to be extremely difficult.
The gross mishandling of the Pietersen issue in particular has made that almost impossible and t here i s now a depressing inevitability it will overshadow not only the two-Test series against New Zealand, but also the Ashes series which follows.