How can the ECB win back the English heart?

Kevin Pietersen is marmite. You either love him or you hate him, and right now, whilst the public have fond feelings for him, the ECB wish he didn't exist. It's not that they don't appreciate all he has done for the country, it's quite the opposite - he is making it extremely hard for the team to move on. Whilst they attempt to rebuild the team after that disastrous Ashes serious out in OZ, first through Moores (the ECB's booty call has now been sacked twice in a matter of years) and now Strauss, KP is always lingering in the back of people's minds.

Now though, the ECB will be cursing their luck - on the day they were due to tell him that his England career was over once and for all (despite seemingly being given false hope by chairman Graves) he goes and scores his career best, a wonderful 355 not out - albeit against a lacklustre Leicestershire attack without a win in 2 years and on a flat track as easy to bat on as it is to count to 3 (thank you MJ for the inspiration).

The lingering ended; he was now all anyone could talk about.

We can all sit and wonder what would have happened had he not scored that potentially career defining knock - it would go down as one of the great mysteries of the world, with big foot, or who ate all the pies? However, the point is, it did happen and the ECB had to deal with it. Andrew Strauss, himself a great servant to the countries' cricketing exploits, was left to tell KP the bad news... on his first day in the job! Unfortunate just doesn't cut it!

This wasn't the news KP or the public wanted to hear. They were all waiting for the fairytale ending: the brave knight (KP) returns to save the damsel in distress (English Cricket) from the terrifying dragon (aussies). It wasn't to be.

There was great uproar, none more so than the South African come Englishman himself - the next day he wrote a damning article in his Independent column saying how angry and disappointed he was; and how deceitful the ECB were!

So after all was said and done - though I suspect we will be hearing about it for years to come - the ECB lost the support of the average English cricket fan and tossed away one of the countries' great players without a hint of sentiment or grace. The biggest question now is, how do they win the fans back? It would look awful if the grounds started emptying and what has, and should, always be an English game, lost touch with its roots!

My suggestion is let your play do the talking - get back on the pitch and win some test matches!

There will now be even more pressure on some of the England players to perform, particularly those in the middle order such as Ali, Stokes or the stalwart of the game, Bell. I hope, for their sake and the games', that the performance start to pick up, otherwise I fear the sport may be abandoned by its own creators.





On a side note, I personally didn't think we should have recalled him. Our middle order is one of the team's strong points and they are all youngsters such as Root and Ballance. They are the England's future and he, sadly for many, is the past. Besides, one innings shouldn't change things - especially in the context! In the rest of his four innings for Surrey, he has scored a combined 112 runs... people seem to forget that.

Deflate gate - an unnecessary fuss or another embarrassment for an already notorious franchise?

When the news broke last season of cheating inside the New England Patriots organisation in a game vs the Indianapolis Colts, it was like a firework; big, attention grabbing, and gone in a flash. Most people assumed they had done it (not the first scandal associated with the team from Massachusetts) but also wondered what the big deal was with balls being ever so slightly deflated - every kid growing up would have played with a flat ball at one time or another and the effect on game quality is minimal, particularly with such minute changes. Then, after a week or so, when the Superbowl came and went, everyone seemed to forget about it and instead talked about the thrilling finish to the biggest American sports event of the year (and perhaps the worst play call in American sports history)!

And that brings us nicely on to this week, when the findings of the Wells report (an official investigation into the allegations) were made public. To briefly summarise the 243 PAGE report: "they probably did it, Brady would have known" (see NFL, all it needs is one sentence)!

The key concept here is that Brady would have known about the 'dastardly' plot. Now this may not seem so important if not for the detail that when the accusations were first made, Brady wholeheartedly and repeatedly denied any knowledge of it or indeed any wrongdoing. So this is where many people take issue - not the deflating of game balls, but the lies told by the organisation's star QB and the deceptive way he attempted to prevent any punishment falling his way.

It has since been announced that the franchise will have to pay a fine of $1 million as well as losing their first round draft pick this year and their fourth rounder the next year. This is on top of a 4 game suspension for talisman Brady.

But is the penalty really fair? Well, did they cheat? yes. Was it really that big a deal? No. But lying can't be tolerated, so although I believe the penalty on the franchise is harsh, I completely support the NFL's decision to penalise and suspend Brady. We do not want to teach supporters that cheating is right and that cheaters don't get punished and the only way to do this is by punishing the offenders.
So kudos to the NFL, for once you have managed to save face for the sport in a situation that was never going to be unanimously supported by the sporting world. I can only hope this kind of farce is never repeated!

One last point; who does Brady return to the field against... that's right, the Colts...