Re: Fletcher on Pietersen's catching

> >but don't Fletcher's (& Penny's) comments rather suggest that this is
> >not in fact the case?

>No. They are merely finding pc safe excuses. RH

Genius! I've spent many years reading all sorts of sillyness on the
web and have come across many expert wind up merchants, but you Robert
are one of the very best!

I'm guessing your views on society in general probably mean you're not
a Guardian reader, so you might have missed the serialisation of
Fletcher's book, but nonetheless to swipe aside the analysis of one of
the very best fielders in the world & a coach with a known obsessive
tendancy towards detail, despite it being backed up by careful
observation and not to offer a coherent case in reply seems to
demonstrate (as if it hadn't been demonstrated a thousand times before)
that your interest on this site is in pushing your curious personal
agenda regardless of the realities of evidence & fact. It's clearly
absurd to claim that there is some PC cover up going on and that Penny
& Fletcher really said to each other "I reckon he dropped that because
he was busy concentrating on singing the South African national anthem,
but we better make up some other story to tell the media." If proof
was ever needed that you weren't interested in arguing rationally and
being open to the possibility that other views might be valid, this is
it.

Robert, you must have been watching cricket for many years. I think
you really love the game - it is, after all, a fantastic game. You
know a fair amount about it (you never seem happier than refering to
lists of pre war county cricketers who I've never heard of) and are
clearly passionate enough about it to have written quite a lot on the
game. Don't you think it's a shame that you let yourself get hamstrung
on politics? Doesn't it get in the way of your enjoyment of the game?
I imagine it must have been very frustrating for you at the end of the
Oval test this year - part of you must have been delighted that England
was winning back the Ashes, but there must have been a large part of
you that felt excluded: while the crowd were going wild celebrating the
last day heroics of KP (and whatever you think of him he is a massive
crowd pleaser & entertainer, tell me you don't feel the adreneline in
your blood when he hits the ball into the stands!) how would you be
able to join in those celebrations given everything you've said? Was
it tricky for you when England last won in Pakistan when Graeme Hick
made 40 heart stopping runs in the gloom at Karachi? Or when Butcher
made his 173* at Headingly in 2001? Or when Hussain dug out 109
crucial runs at Kandy earlier that year, was there no part of you that
felt pride to see someone under so much pressure play with such
single-mindedness and help set up a fantastic series win in Sri Lanka?
Did you honestly believe that he'd have been more committed to the
cause if he didn't have a foreign sounding name? I struggle to think
of a player more obsessively determined than Nasser! When Simon Jones
sent the ball reverse swinging into Australian stumps this summer,
wasn't there a part of you that wanted to leap out of your chair like
everyone else and joyfully celebrate the part he played in getting a
psychological hold over the Aussies, reducing their much vaunted
batsmen to yesterday's men? While you're worrying about where
someone's grandfather was born or what colour someone's mother is (but
curiously, you're never concerned when somone marries a foreigner -
does it suggest that Ashley Giles is unpatriotic since he has chosen to
marry a Norwegian woman in Stine Giles? Would you deny their children
the right to play for England, I guess after your comments on Alan,
Elaine & Mark Butcher you would, although, perhaps since Stine's
white...) don't you just wish you could let all of those worries go and
just sit back and enjoy the cricket?

I know patriotism matters to you Robert, so doesn't that make it hard
for you: how can one as patriotic as you and with such a love of
cricket allow yourself to be anything but 100% behind the England
cricket team? You say that the problem with "mecenaries" is that they
have their own personal agenda that undermines their commitment to the
team (and I'm not sure I agree with that), but aren't you guilty of the
same thing yourself? Don't you allow your personal non-cricketing
agenda get in the way of supporting the England side? You have a
divided loyalty, but it seems that your loyalty to your political
beliefs is more important that your support for England's cricket team.

It's such a shame - you really are cutting off your nose to spite your
face. Oh well, it's your loss I guess...

.

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