KP exiled for good as Strauss begins belligerent reign

Two of crickets biggest enemies in Peter Moores and Kevin Pietersen now share a common thread in that they have both been victims of Andrew Strauss's short yet already contentious tenure as England's director of cricket. 

Despite scoring 326 for Surrey in the second division of the LV= County Championship against Leicestershire at the Oval, Pietersen was yesterday told by his former England captain that he would not be recalled by the international selectors.

On a day where KP made a career-best score of 326, an innings containing 34 fours and 14 sixes, the former Ashes hero was exiled for good and it is highly unlikely that a set of such a cruelly conflicting emotions will ever befall another cricketer in the same 24-hour spell.

When the news of Peter Moores's sacking was leaked, the day before he was supposed to be made aware by an official press release, many people - even those who believe Moores is unfit to manage England - described the handling of the situation by the ECB as shocking, even Pietersen.

If this did not confirm what we already thought, that the ECB as an organisation have a lot of explaining to do, their treatment of Pietersen yesterday was the final nail in an already nail-ridden coffin.

Many people including Pietersen described the handling of
Moores's sacking by the ECB as shocking.

Pietersen has been called many things. An egotist, arrogant, selfish. I could go on. But the way he was treated by the ECB, not just yesterday, but when he was initially 'sacked' by the ECB, deserves a different level of superlatives entirely. People demanded answers the first time and nothing has changed. If anything the pro-KP section of society will be even more desperate to find out why one of England's most talented batsman has been told there is now no chance of him being picked in the future.

Any player capable of scoring runs in the quantity and manner in which Pietersen is capable of is surely a necessity for the England team, right? Not always. If we were talking about Cricket Australia, this would be a mute point. A boisterous mentality is something that the Baggy Greens are able to carry with dignity, but a personality like Pietersen's in an England side sticks out like a youth player in a Manchester City line-up.

Whenever I have attempted to rationalise the dismissal of Pietersen, I have tended to use a metaphor in parallel with another hero-villain sportsman, Luis Suarez. If a footballer scores a hat trick every week then they are guaranteed to be selected. If that same player continues to score goals, but starts biting people, being accused of racism and so forth, a balancing act comes into play. All of those goals really do matter, because as soon as the negatives supersede your talent as a professional sportsman, you are as good as gone.

Liverpool Football Club may be more willing to tolerate a controversial egotist, but this is simply not something that the England and Wales Cricket Board are renowned for doing and never will be, in my opinion. Even if you are one of the nicest people in cricket, as many said of Moores, if you do not whole-heartedly agree with the ECB's agenda, you too are as good as gone.

Perhaps in ten years time when we look back on a turbulent 72 hours in English cricket, we will be grateful that the new era of English cricketers and management made these changes in order to turn over a new leaf and eliminate any of the players and coaches which the ECB even remotely associates with failure or disobedience. However, one element which remains the same is a governing body which continues to frustrate cricket fans by being unaccountable for its actions. The appointment of Strauss also reeked of nepotism, but as long as you are willing to play ball, the job is as good as yours.