Kevin Pietersen

[David Williams]

Any chance DR giving us his views on Zola Budd? I certainly enjoyed her Olympics at least as much as Mo Farah's.

[Brian Towers]

Well, I'm going to support the complete mercenary position based on the following real world case. Note that arguments in favour go back at least as far as Basil d'Oliveira.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics Aaron Cook represented the UK in taekwondo. In 2011 he decided to remove himself from the UK federation funding and coaching because he thought they weren't up to scratch. Despite being world ranked number 1 he was subsequently not selected for the UK team for the 2012 Olympics. He has now stopped representing the UK and has been accepted to represent Moldova at the 2016 Olympics. He chose Moldova because 1) they wanted him and 2) they do not have a competitor at his weight who would qualify - he did not want to deprive somebody else of an Olympic place.

Since it would appear that the UK taekwondo association's behavior makes the ECB look like paragons of virtue I'm 100% behind A Cook (the taekwondo player, not the cricketer). I hope he goes on to win gold, ideally beating the UK representative who was awarded his place for the 2012 Olympics on the way.

[David Robertson]

Any chance DR giving us his views on Zola Budd? I certainly enjoyed her Olympics at least as much as Mo Farah's.

Oo, yes! Delighted to give my views. Thanks for the invitation.

Mo Farah is a British citizen, wholly entitled to live in, and run for his country. He was born in Somalia following a holiday relationship, but remains British via his father. Hence he required no special dispensation to residence.

Mo Farah was born on 23 March 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia. He moved to Britain at the age of eight to join his father. His dad, Mukhtar Farah, is a British citizen who was born in London, England and grew up in Hounslow

By contrast, Zola Budd was a pathetic pawn in the entirely racist intrigues of the Daily Mail, supported by Margaret Thatcher, to bolster the apartheid regime in South Africa and undermined the liberation struggle of the ANC. Her preferential treatment was racist at the time, and remains racist today. I was very pleased to have played my part, within the Anti-Apartheid Movement thirty years back, in opposing Zola Budd's citizenship. I would do the same again.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her (aged 17) to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international sporting boycott of South Africa, so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the Daily Mail, British citizenship was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to her acquiring a passport under preferential circumstances. Groups supporting the abolition of apartheid campaigned vociferously and effectively to highlight the special treatment she received; other applicants had to wait sometimes years to be granted citizenship, if at all.

I was absolutely delighted by Mo Farah's performances in 2012. I recall feeling sorry for Zola Budd in 1984. She tripped up the home-town favourite; finished down the field; and was booed off the track. Poor sap. But I was delighted the wretched Daily Mail and the poisonous Margaret Thatcher were denied the triumph they'd sought.

[David Williams]

I never understood the Zola Budd thing.

To me it looked like a major embarrassment to the South African government, so I would have expected the anti-apartheid movement to encourage it. So the Daily Mail would be against it, probably going on the grounds that the fast-tracking was somehow not fair play. And Margaret Thatcher, with zero interest in sport, and seeing who was in favour and who was against, would block it.

And everyone did the exact opposite.

[Kevin Thurlow]

" I recall feeling sorry for Zola Budd in 1984. She tripped up the home-town favourite; finished down the field; and was booed off the track. Poor sap. "

Er, Mary Decker later acknowledged what was obvious, that it was her own stupid fault that she collided with ZB. MD was later banned for drug offences, but that wasn't her fault either apparently. It isn't entirely clear that the drug testing was carried out correctly.

I see Graves has belatedly denied everything about KP. He should have done that a long time ago.