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.
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