There are rumours that these two are no longer talking , probably why Pietersen spent most of the day fielding on the boundary. How long will
Flintoff remain captain? Great bloke but may be Strauss should take captaincy!

Flinoff should never captain. He is an excellent cricketer but he cannot take the whole burden on himself. Strauss should be a good one.

Interesting question. The two strongest characters could have fallen out.

On more reason to have a decent psychological skipper back - one who knows how to aim and fire the KP cannon in the right direction.

Wonder on what issue...A woman perhaps?

It won't fix a thing for England to hand over the Captaincy to a bloke averaging under 25 with the bat in the current series.

Well, if the criterion for captaincy selection is runs scored, may as well give it to KP.

He's the best that Eng have at the mo

Strauss should have been captain from the beginning of the series.

It will amount to nothing more than a joke if Flintoff keeps the captaincy for the one day series.

quote:

Originally posted by Mister Robby:
Well, if the criterion for captaincy selection is runs scored, may as well give it to KP.

Too often over the last 20 years England have dug a deeper hole for themselves than what they already had by ignoring a very important factor when appointing Captains IMO.
It's one thing to want to dump the Captain you have but to appoint just anybody regardless of their form at the time is a mistake.
I'm not suggesting the Captain has to be the best player, simply whoever gets the job needs to be in good form before they are given any more responsability.

Doesn't seem as if Pietersen is talking to anybody at the minute if his facial expressions while batting are anything nearing evidence. One seriously pi55ed off batsman...

quote:

Originally posted by Rowman:
I'm not suggesting the Captain has to be the best player, simply whoever gets the job needs to be in good form before they are given any more responsability.

So but your criterion, the appointment of Vaughan (five centuries in his previous seven tests) in 2003 was correct?

quote:

Originally posted by Purgatory:
Doesn't seem as if Pietersen is talking to anybody at the minute if his facial expressions while batting are anything nearing evidence. One seriously pi55ed off batsman...

He's the biggest drama queen in business and a self confessed cross batter.

kp reminds me of Lara a bit, great player but like's being around winners.

Lara was known to mostly hang out at nightclubs with the top aussie players when his team was getting thumped rather than sticking with his losing teammates.

Pull the other one mite, you cannot even compare Lara to KP. KP is England's Afridi.

quote:

Originally posted by Mister Robby:

quote:

Originally posted by Rowman:
I'm not suggesting the Captain has to be the best player, simply whoever gets the job needs to be in good form before they are given any more responsability.

So but your criterion, the appointment of Vaughan (five centuries in his previous seven tests) in 2003 was correct?

Yes. Atleast if a Captain starts on a good note there will be less doubt in the mind of the players to begin with.

quote:

Originally posted by Purgatory:
Doesn't seem as if Pietersen is talking to anybody at the minute if his facial expressions while batting are anything nearing evidence. One seriously pi55ed off batsman...

I spotted that at Adelaide on day 3 ...
and questioned then whether all was well inside the England dressing room.
At Perth when KP was bear hugging his partners on their batting achievements, all Flintoff (scoring 50) got from KP was a swift handshake and a comment thrown over his left shoulder as they walked back to their respective creases.

Something is definitely amiss.

It's clear that Flintoff doesn't have KP's respect. Strauss is probably a bit bitter at not getting another bite at the captaincy, too.

It certainly doesn't seem like there's any team spirit left. It's almost like a Pakistan/West Indies touring side.

Not too far from the truth, sadly.

quote:

Originally posted by Honiyan:
Wonder on what issue...A woman perhaps?

I doubt it. Flintoff is a married guy and he is not a character that will go chasing after every woman he sees, unlike Pietersen, who does not seem to have any morals.

I think it's clear that Pietersen absolutely hates losing and history would tend to show that he's not averse to having a bit of a sulk when things don't go his way.

Personally, I'm glad he's (apparently) steaming at the shambles of a series this has become.

I get the impression a number of players in the England set-up are shoulder-shruggers who just plod along happily whatever the weather - but Pietersen's not one of them. He's angry and he's driven.

Wish we had a few more like him, and a few less "rubber dinghy men" (to quote Brian Kidd as his Blackburn side - who to a man all thought they were better players than they really were - drifted towards relegation from the Premier League in around 2000).

They are talking, not as much as one would like, but i hear Freddie's Afrikaans lessons are going well

quote:

Originally posted by Silly Point:
unlike Pietersen, who does not seem to have any morals.

Ahem.... he hangs around with none other than Warne. It sticks!

The team spirit of the England team at the moment is awful, I dont know whether the cause of this is down to them playing so poorly in this series or that they dont really get on with eachother. If you look at the Aussies they all seem like best mates but then you look at England and you wonder if any of them actually get on with eachother?

Oh and it was obvious Flintoff & Pietersen were going to fall out at some point. 2 big ego's clashing.

quote:

Originally posted by poisoned:
If you look at the Aussies they all seem like best mates but then you look at England and you wonder if any of them actually get on with eachother?

It's quite easy to be 'best mates' with the rest of your team when you're four-nil up in the series without even having to get out of third gear.

When England were winning, they all seemed pretty close.

But they're taking a beating, and quite rightly, they're low.

I wouldn't take that as a sign that the dressing room is divided and on the brink of all-out war.

Hard to imagine any team taking such a regular thrashing and still remaining cock-a-hoop and upbeat.

quote:

Originally posted by Rowman:

quote:

Originally posted by Mister Robby:
Well, if the criterion for captaincy selection is runs scored, may as well give it to KP.

Too often over the last 20 years England have dug a deeper hole for themselves than what they already had by ignoring a very important factor when appointing Captains IMO.
It's one thing to want to dump the Captain you have but to appoint just anybody regardless of their form at the time is a mistake.
I'm not suggesting the Captain has to be the best player, simply whoever gets the job needs to be in good form before they are given any more responsability.

Yeah, so he can lose whatever form he has too? I thought it should be obvious not to burden/over-burden your best player/or a player in good form with the reins of reign. Form is definitely not independent of other factors like captaincy. I'd rather go for one with an acute cricketing common sense and leadership qualities - so by default people with big egos (clashing with other egos within the team) are out of the question.