Last updated 13:43, Thursday, 08 January 2009

MONTH'S of brooding discontent between England's egocentric cricket captain Kevin Pietersen and head coach Peter Moores came to a head today.
Swashbuckling Pietersen resigned while Moores was sacked.
FRANK CASSIDY talked to personalities connected with the local game - including former Vickers and England wicketkeeper Paul Nixon - for their views on the tumultuos affair

I'M OUTTA HERE: Departing England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen leaves for England at the OR Tambo international Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday

MIKE Atherton predicted it would all end in tears — and so it has.
After months of corrosive behind-the-scenes bickering, the civil war in English cricket came out into the open yesterday with South African-born skipper Kevin Pietersen and head coach Peter Moores both leaving the scene — at least for now.
Locally there is a minor divergence of opinion about the merits of the two principal characters, but no disagreement about one thing — a clash was bound to happen.
Lindal captain Alastair McDougall, who is also Cumbria Cricket Board development officer for south Cumbria, said: “I just think it’s a bit of a mess.
“I think they have washed their dirty linen in public at the wrong time.
“They have a whacking big tour of the West Indies coming up and then there is a Test series against Australia.
“I thought that when they appointed Pietersen he would be able to sort out the one-day side and the five-day, but he’s got such a big ego.
“No-one gets on with him on the county circuit.
“You can’t have just one person dictating.
“The captain is important in a cricket team, but not more important than all 11 players.
“Peter Moores is a good coach who has come through the system, but he is probably too much of a nice bloke.
“Half the players like him and half don’t.
“I would give the captaincy to Flintoff, but he won’t take it.”
Dalton Cricket Club secretary Stan Jones said: “As far as I know it has something to do with whether or not Michael Vaughan would go on tour to the West Indies, and I don’t know that much about it, but it would seem that Pietersen didn’t want him to go and Peter Moores did.
“Perhaps Vaughan did not justify his place in the team and Pietersen is a winner.
“When you have people like Pietersen in the team it is difficult for anyone else to be captain.
“He is a big character, a big personality, like Flintoff.
“It’s just a clash of personalities between Pietersen and Moores and it has caused strife which cannot be good for the team.”
Cumbria-born Paul Nixon, who kept wicket for Vickers Sports Club before going on to star for England, said: “Obviously for me it’s very disappointing that it’s come out in the public eye like this.
“Ideally it would have been better to keep it behind closed doors, but the ECB has let it drag on.
“I know that KP wanted to get this sorted.
“They (Pietersen and Moores) are two very different characters, they are two guys starting out in their international managerial roles.
“KP is a real quality-not-quantity type of practitioner, whereas Moores is first in the nets and the last away.
“I don’t know how much they have agreed selection-wise.
“Kevin is always very honest and open, sometimes too honest.
“Sometimes it is better to be discreet in that environment, but with Kevin what you see is what you get.
“I’m absolutely positive that KP would not resign, he’s not that type of guy ... I’m wondering if something has gone on in the background with the ECB.
“As for a replacement, Andrew Strauss would be a good man.
“People have criticised his game in the past, but he has had a break, come back and worked on his game.
“I have chatted to him about his game and now could be the time for him to be captain again.”
Former Vickerstown junior and Warwickshire and Somerset all-rounder Mike Burns said: “It’s a tough one. They are both completely different types.
“Peter Moores is very much of a level four coach — a coaching qualification that is almost like a degree — it takes you four years to get it.
“Pietersen, well, I think there’s a bit of Shane Warne rubbing off on him, because Warne moaned that England had too many backroom staff and everything was about fitness and computers.
“Pietersen likes a bit of down time between matches.
“To be fair, it should have been kept in house.
“You just don’t know what was agreed when Kevin Pietersen was appointed regarding who was in charge of what.
“That’s always been the problem with cricket, it’s not like soccer where you have one captain shouting and motivating the players.
“In cricket you are never sure who is in charge - is it the captain or the coach?
“Who takes the blame if the team loses?
“A replacement? It has to be either Michael Vaughan or Andrew Strauss. Freddy (Flintoff) has too much on his plate and Alastair Cook might be one for the future.”
Barrow Cricket Club stalwart Ian Allington said: “Regarding a successor, Andrew Strauss is the one everyone seems to take seriously, he’s level-headed and he’s done it before.
“I think it’s been a bit farcical really.
“They must have known Pietersen was an abrasive character when they appointed him and that something like this would happen.
“He has done a good job while he was there, but there have been rumblings from some players about the way he was doing things and it will be interesting to see how he fits back into the side.”
Millom-based Colin Bickerstaffe, secretary of the North Lancashire and Cumbria Cricket League, said: “Cricket at the highest level is in a self-inflicted mess.
“Self-inflicted because once again the silly idea that your star player must be a good captain is proved to be wrong, only this time it was a double whammy as the team manager appointed had no idea as regards man-management and he and the captain, Pietersen, were incompatible.
“So on the verge of the West Indies tour, the England captain resigns, the team manager is sacked, and Strauss is left to pick up the pieces.
“It is reported that Pietersen told the ECB he could not lead the England test side in the West Indies unless the team management appointments were changed. Maybe he would have toured if Vaughan, whose advice would have been invaluable, had been selected for the tour.
“When Ian Botham resigned the England captaincy, the former captain, Mike Brearley, was restored to the job, and a rejuvenated team won the Ashes.
“Why not do something similar? Bring back Vaughan as skipper, keep Pietersen in the team, and ask Michael Atherton or Chris Adams the former Sussex skipper and now the Surrey County Club manager, to take over from the amateurish Moores.
“The faltering Aussies, (now without Warne or McGrath), will soon be with us, and we should have a great chance of regaining the Ashes if the present problems are solved, and players and management are singing from the same hymn sheet.”