The England and Wales Cricket Board has admitted that a leaked document detailing repeated problems with Kevin Pietersen on the 2013-14 Ashes Tour forms part of a potential legal response to the batsman’s explosive autobiography.
The document, dismissed by Pietersen on Tuesday night as “a joke” and an “embarrassment” to the ECB, was published by ESPN-Cricinfo on Tuesday afternoon, after Pietersen had completed a round of book-plugging interviews and before he attended a question and answer session in the surreal setting of a Franciscan friary known as the Monastery in Gorton, Manchester.
A reference is made in the document to the showdown with Andy Flower, the then coach, before the fifth Test in Sydney that Pietersen describes in detail in his autobiography, but it also covers many other incidents that are not mentioned in the book.
They include criticism of Alastair Cook’s captaincy, Michael Carberry’s batting and Graeme Swann’s character, in addition to other alleged examples of defiance of Flower — whether whistling on his way back to the pavilion after a dismissal, looking at his watch or out of the window during team meetings or taking young players out drinking against team instructions.
It was initially billed by Cricinfo as the dossier that was mentioned by the ECB around the time of Pietersen’s sacking in February. But an ECB spokesman, who had earlier maintained the governing body’s refusal to respond to Pietersen’s various attacks, insisted it was an internal legal email that was being prepared by lawyers as a possible response to the book. The ECB also later claimed the document had been tampered with. “This is the last thing we wanted,” the spokesman said.
On Twitter, the ECB said: “The document published by ESPN-Cricinfo is not what has been suggested. It is simply part of a privileged legal document produced by the ECB’s lawyers compiling information as part of the ECB’s internal due diligence ahead of the release of the Kevin Pietersen book.”
The document, marked “Strictly privileged and confidential”, alleges that, before the final Test in Sydney, Pietersen stated Cook’s captaincy was “weak [and] tactically inept”, that he said Flower should let the younger players “go out and get pissed”.
It alleges that Pietersen said Carberry was “useless” and asked: “Aren’t there any better players at county level?” There are also questions raised about Pietersen’s friendship with Piers Morgan. The document states: “It riled the team and management that KP allowed Piers Morgan to belittle AC [Cook] and the team on social media. When asked by some of his teammates to get Morgan to stop, KP laughed at the players and told them to get a thicker skin.”
Damage limitation The document left the ECB with a familiar exercise of damage limitation, having been greeted with derision on social media. Pietersen, noting that it referred to Cook as Alistair, said: “It’s embarrassing, they couldn’t even spell Cooky’s name right. It’s a joke, I’m done with it.”
At his Monastery Q&A there was the odd admission of regret but the mood was certainly not confessional as Pietersen repeated his attacks on Flower and Matt Prior for, he joked, “the 701st time today” – and he then added his strongest criticism yet of Swann, claiming that Flower shared his view that the spinner had “let the team down” by flying home before the end of the series.
There is no mention in the book, or the document, of Swann’s early departure from Australia, immediately after the Ashes had been lost in the third Test in Perth.
Claims of bullying were dismissed by Swann. “There was absolutely no bullying,” he told the Sun . “Sure, bowlers shout at fielders if they are out of position or not concentrating. A bowler or wicketkeeper delivers a bit of a kick up the backside – just like a goalkeeper shouts at his centre-half. This is international sport, not the Under-11s.
“If Kevin or other players can’t take a bollocking for being unprofessional, for being out of position or seemingly not trying, they are in the wrong business. I must stress bowlers never had a go at fielders for dropping catches or a genuine mistake. It was when somebody was out of position or too busy waving to the crowd.”
Earlier, Pietersen had admitted that “it does look like it’s the end of the road” for his England career, and suggested that could also mean the end of his career in English cricket.
The ECB has maintained its silence, presumably happy for Pietersen to rage himself out. Flower, Pietersen’s third and last England coach, who is pilloried in the book, has not reacted either.
— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
