Kevin Pietersen’s on-again, off-again relationship with the England cricket team has brought to the fore England Cricket Board’s ineptitude at man management. The ECB’s treatment of Pietersen is testament to the fact that they are yet to master the art of managing mavericks.
The anti-KP camp describes him as brash, abrasive, irrational, egotistical, cocky and confrontational. The pro-KP faction opines he is a driven, ambitious, hard-working and a dedicated sportsman.
The broad range of adjectives used by friends, foes and even the media to define KP's personality traits paint a very complex caricature of England's most controversial cricketer.
But sport is full of complex individuals. In a team environment, successfully dealing with ‘difficult’ characters is a key responsibility of the captain and management. Inability to integrate those perceived as rebels and misfits is nothing but leadership failure.
Sport dressing rooms are not classrooms or even offices for that matter. Hence there are bound to be individuals who may not be fond of rules and show no respect for the status quo. Yet there has to be space for everyone, especially the ones who see things differently.
This is not a defense of KP. The man has indeed made things difficult for himself. From ‘Textgate’ to his autobiography, KP's constant run-ins with team members and England’s cricket establishment has meant the 34-year-old continues to be seen as a divisive force despite the ‘reintegration’ process in 2012. Yet the new cricket regime in the country has managed to portray KP as a martyr purely because of their poor handling of the entire episode.
As he faces the prospect of cricketing apartheid, this time for good, KP is still England's greatest ever run-getter across all formats and has won more Man-of-the-Match awards than any other England player in history.
At 34, he comfortably ranks among the top 6 batsmen in the country, which is why Andrew Strauss slamming the door shut on KP's return a day after his magnum opus of 355* against Leicestershire has left majority of the ticket paying public in England fuming.
Spectators expect the new ECB director to rise above personal issues and petty politics to pick the best team, with merit being the sole criterion, especially in an Ashes year.
Strauss was thrown into the maelstrom of the KP saga just a week after being appointed to his new role. As he begins about his task of rebuilding English cricket with an objective of winning the 2019 ICC World Cup at home, the ECB director could imbibe a few things by revisiting the well-documented career and philosophy of British football’s most successful football manager.
In 1992, Sir Alex Ferguson signed Eric Cantona, quite possibly the greatest acquisition in the history of Manchester United. The 26-year-old Frenchman had played for seven clubs before shifting base to Old Trafford. Interestingly, he had fallen out with most of his previous seven employers. Eric, a flawed genius, had garnered a reputation of being impossible to manage.
Ferguson quickly devised a way to keep Eric happy and performing at his optimum best. The manager treated Eric with kid gloves, always taking his side despite the many misdemeanors. No matter how wrong he was, Ferguson offered Eric special protection. Even when Cantona infamously 'kungfu-kicked' a spectator, Fergie insulated him from the British press. Ferguson curbed his own autocratic instincts in dealing with the moody forward. In his five-year career with the club, Eric repaid the protection of his boss with 4 Premier League trophies, 2 FA Cups and 3 Community Shields. He retired in 1997 as a Manchester United icon, with fans having rechristened him to King Eric.
Teddy Sheringham arrived at the club to fill the void left by Cantona’s departure. During an international game, as Andy Cole waited to make his England debut as a substitute for Sheringham, he was neither offered a handshake nor the customary word of encouragement from his fellow striking partner. The incident led to the two (teammates for club and country) to enter into bitter stand-off.
Along with Dwight Yorke, Cole and Sheringham formed United’s forward line going into the 1999 season. They scored loads of goals and the team went on to accomplish the greatest feat in club football – winning the ‘Treble’ (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League). Years later, Cole said on record that he hated Sheringham and the pair never uttered a single word during their Manchester United career.
With Ferguson having overlooked the friction between his two key players for the sake of the larger picture, the team performance on the pitch remained unaffected.
When a very young Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in the summer of 2003 at Old Trafford, Ruud van Nistelrooy was the club’s most valuable player. Ronaldo was of course projected to be a future great, but Ruud was calling the shots in Manchester then. The Dutchman wasn’t too happy with Ronaldo’s self-indulgent wing play.
The growing discontent eventually resulted in a furious bust-up at the club’s Carrington training ground in January 2006. Clearly the manager had to make a choice between Ruud’s present performance and Ronaldo’s future potential. Fergie sided with the youngster and shipped Ruud off to Real Madrid in the summer.
In 2006-07, Ronaldo scored 23 goals in all competitions for United. He almost doubled that in 2007-08 with 42 goals, capping off the season with the Premier League, Champions League and Ballon d’Or trophies. Ferguson’s calculated gamble of investing in him had paid off. It was yet another masterclass in talent management by the grand old man of British football.
Kevin Pietersen, like Eric Cantona, is a rare maverick talent who nine times out of ten could leave his teammates pulling their hair out. But on that tenth day, he will be a world beater, which is when Strauss would hope he was batting in the middle-order. Without KP, England have no chance of competing in the Ashes, with him they just might.
It is no secret that Kevin Pietersen does not get along with England’s Test captain Alastair Cook and couple of other senior players. Like Fergie, Strauss should stick to picking the best team and not best friends. He was to weigh his options and stick by players who will win him cricket matches.
Strauss needs to display compassion and ruthlessness in equal measure. He needs to abhor mediocrity and honor merit. Alex Ferguson built teams of serial winners, which is exactly what Andrew Strauss must strive for, even if it means selecting Kevin Pietersen.