Kevin Pietersen

[Paul McKeown]

A Cricketer of Unbelievable Natural Talent (c) Andy Zaltzman (and Andrew Strauss) - discuss!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Wasn't his average going down? Has the chess world ever seen a soap opera like that with similar levels of farce?

[Carl Hibbard]

A Cricketer of Unbelievable Natural Talent (c) Andy Zaltzman (and Andrew Strauss) - discuss!

Love to watch but would not want him in my team.

[Carl Hibbard]

Strauss and Carauna for that matter you play for the country you are born in no exception.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Strauss and Carauna for that matter you play for the country you are born in no exception.

Some exceptions:--

Mike Denness
Jonathan Trott
Tony Grieg
Nasser Hussein
Chris Lewis
Devon Malcolm
Alan Lamb
Eoin Morgan
The Hollioakes
The Smiths (edit: Chris and Robin not the band)
Douglas Jardine
Ted Dexter
Dermot Reeve
Andy Caddick

[Carl Hibbard]

Same rule applies.

[PeterFarr]

Same rule applies.

That's utterly ridiculous. You wouldn't have allowed Nasser Hussain who was brought up from boyhood in England? Colin Cowdrey, Bob Woolmer, Robin Jackman, all born in India? Basil d'Oliviera? Anyone born in Wales?

[Roger de Coverly]

Caruana was born in Miami (according to wiki). He became Italian because playing and living in Europe appeared to give him more opportunities on his way to world class.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Same rule applies.

That's utterly ridiculous. You wouldn't have allowed Nasser Hussain who was brought up from boyhood in England? Colin Cowdrey, Bob Woolmer, Robin Jackman, all born in India? Basil d'Oliviera? Anyone born in Wales?

Well maybe not the last one, given that it is the England *and Wales* Cricket Board

[Kevin Thurlow]

Gary Ballance was born abroad as well. It's all very well saying people should play for the country of their birth, but Ted Dexter could hardly play for Italy, and Basil D'Oliveira wouldn't have been picked for South Africa.

There are trust issues with Pietersen - why should he trust ECB after what they have done? I can imagine he's "difficult" at times, but that applies to others it seems, e.g Hussein, Atherton, Willis, Botham, Boycott...

There are other players who don't fit in - Chris Read, other wicketkeepers when Alec Stewart's dad was the manager; Adil Rashid has now been on two tours without playing a game, etc.

Alistair Cook must be rattled if he's being abusive about Graves being from Yorkshire, (and uncaring about team spirit), when Cook had six Yorkshire players in the squad, admittedly four of them only picked to stop them playing for Yorkshire.

Other countries have picked players that apparently don't get on with colleagues (e.g. Bradman, who refused to stay in the same hotel as his team mates!). I can see that some players are regarded as disruptive, but surely selection should primarily be on ability. I have noticed that when someone else gets a century, Pietersen is leading the applause on the balcony, so he cannot be 100 % bad. ECB are still picking people associated with the fake Pietersen Twitter account... It's harsh to call that Strausslogic, because it happened before he arrived.

[MartinCarpenter]

Like I said elsewhere, even Yorkshire are picking people born outwith the county nowadays

KP has done a few extra special things, like those texts to South Africa, and his biography.

[David Robertson]

Any chance OMH giving us his views on Mo Farah?

[Kevin Thurlow]

Sir Geoffrey speaks

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/ ... 75117.html

Although I'm not a great fan of Peter Moores, I think ECB treated him badly.

[Carl Hibbard]

Any chance OMH giving us his views on Mo Farah?

Carl does agree it was rather a silly idea

[PeterFarr]

Any chance OMH giving us his views on Mo Farah?

Carl does agree it was rather a silly idea

I think a lot of people would share the view that players in a national team should have an emotional tie to their country, through birth, residence of whatever, but it's quite hard to devise fair rules for this in the modern world and in sports where livelihoods are at stake.