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Geoffrey Boycott: Kevin Pietersen can’t return to the England side until he is man enough to say sorry

Posted on | August 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

Kevin Pietersen should not play for England again until he publicly apologises to Andrew Strauss, his team-mates and this country’s cricket lovers for his behaviour.

Cricket has always been, and still is, a sport of individuals working within a team framework. If one individual does not buy into that and hurts the unity and smooth running of the side then he has to go, no matter how gifted he is.

The captain, Andrew Strauss, and the coach, Andy Flower, are not stupid. They know England were outplayed and well beaten at the Kia Oval and without Pietersen’s brilliant 149 at Headingley they would have been beaten again, so it is a courageous decision to leave him out of the team and virtually hand South Africa the top spot.

But Andrew and Andy’s job is to organise, train and get 11 guys to work together under one leader. They must be fed up with the baggage and publicity surrounding Kevin. It never stops. Every week he has something to say or does something that focuses attention through the media on him and not the team. The talking points in English cricket always seem to be about Kevin.

Andrew and Andy, plus the England and Wales Cricket Board, have put up with all that because he can be a match-winning batsman. They have been prepared to accept all his publicity antics so long as he fulfils his contractual obligations.

But then he tried to change that. First we had his attempts to play Twenty20 cricket for England but not one-day internationals. That didn’t go down well. Then he insisted on playing the full Indian Premier League next year and to miss two Tests against New Zealand in May. By doing so he was putting the IPL above England, which smacks to everybody as him picking and choosing when he plays Test matches for us.

Then we had his stupid comments at Headingley saying that Lord’s may be his last Test because the atmosphere in the dressing room was against him.

Then we had the last straw. Texting comments to the opposition about the captain was unforgivable. Telling them how to bowl and get him out is simply not acceptable and deserves a public apology.

Every player has the right to express his views to the captain, coach and colleagues in the dressing room. You can disagree, tell them you think they are wrong or you should be doing things differently. I have done it. It can clear the air. But three things are paramount.

One: what is said in the dressing room stays in the dressing room.

Two: when the captain decides on anything his decision is all that matters and every member of the team should follow it.

Three: you never criticise your colleagues outside of the dressing room.

You can’t have team members openly criticising colleagues and above all the captain. If he had done that at Yorkshire under Brian Sellers he would have been sacked.

Would it be acceptable if people in normal jobs started criticising their bosses to rivals? Would they survive in their job? Of course not.

Most things Pietersen says don’t make any sense. One minute he doesn’t want to play, next minute he does. It is brinkmanship and in the end, as captain and coach, you have had enough. England can’t run a team like that.

In time he can come back. But we need a cooling off period. Don’t pick him for the one-dayers against South Africa or the T20 World Cup. Wait until the Test series in India. That gives us time to see if he is genuine about saying sorry.

He has to admit he has done something wrong, given succour to the opposition and caused dissension and upheaval in the camp. We have spent more time on Pietersen than we have getting ready for a b—– Test match.

The whole summer has been about Pietersen. But the one thing we have not seen is the word sorry. He has not been big enough or man enough to do that. He did not apologise in his YouTube interview.

Without Pietersen, England’s chances of beating South Africa are greatly reduced. No young player can equal his experience and ability. England already have a young batsman, James Taylor, in only his second Test and now have a young Jonny Bairstow in only his fourth match. These two youngsters may improve and in time be good batsman but at this moment they will not frighten the opposition.

South Africa will be over the moon that Pietersen is missing from England’s batting line-up in a massive Test match this week. They will not be able to believe their luck as their chances of winning at Lord’s and becoming No 1 in the world have improved enormously.

But having said that, winning is not the only thing. The issues around Pietersen are more important than England beating South Africa.

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