Newspaper Industry
Kevin Pietersen and the curse of the England captaincy
Monday, 08, March,2010
Those whom England wish to destroy, they first make captain. Who could escape such a thought, watching Kevin Pietersen struggle against the left-arm spinners of Bangladesh? What has happened to him, that he should fail four times in succession against Lilliput?Is it really these half-decent left-armers who have given him so much trouble? Or is he struggling against a deeper woe? His mind has been twisted like a pretzel by the ineffable conundrum of the England captaincy — by England’s ancient reverence for leadership.
That old Achilles injury is only part of the story. Would it have even happened had he not been sacked as England captain? I am inclined to think that with an already niggling problem, he would have shied away from the Indian Premier League last year and looked for greater glory in the Ashes summer that followed it.As it was, he carried the tweak through the IPL and into the first two Tests against Australia, and as a result he missed the rest of the series.