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Flt_Lt_Jamie

Listed below are comments made by Flt_Lt_Jamie between Wednesday, 30th July 2008 and Wednesday, 1st April 2009.

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The loneliness of a long-distance cricketer 5:46pm on 01 Apr 2009 Nice article Kevin. A lot has been and will continue to be written about Kevin Pietersen. By journalists, ex-players (some posing as journalists), bloggers and fans. Some of that writing is good, some of that writing is mediocre and some of that writing is bad. And it isn't the bloggers who hold the monopoly on the bad writing.

Let's stick to facts, which is what Kevin has done here. Kevin Pietersen is a very driven person. So driven that many people will find him scary, many will dislike him and many will misunderstand him. The ECB certainly has elements that dislike and misunderstand him.

Because he is who he is, Kevin Pietersen is an easy target for the slack minded who are seeking someone to slag off. Those who claim he is not performing should look at his statistics:

50 tests, 91 innings, 4445 runs at an average of 51.09

91 ODIs, 81 innings, 3079 runs at an average of 46.65

If that's not performing then the whole England team is not performing, not just one player!

He will divide people. Driven, straight talking people who don't suffer fools do. In all walks of life. I've seen plenty; some I liked, some I disliked. Just deal with it and get on with life.
Sensible Strauss just the tonic 9:51pm on 08 Jan 2009 I've commented elsewhere how the ECB needs to learn hard lessons from this incident. I'm also revising my opinion of Steve Harmison after his comments. Mind you, if this shows he's regrown the set he appears to have lost and he demolishes the West Indies then perhaps some more good can come of this beyond Moores being sacked. If he doesn't then I'd leave him to rot at Durham.

One rule I would bring in is similar to one Clive Woodward bought in for England rugby - say anything to the press about what goes on behind the scenes then you never play for England again. I'd add that you lose your central contract if you do that.

This could and should have been dealt with behind closed doors. But the ECB lacks any man management ability and certainly has no understanding of how to deal with very motivated people, of which KP is definitely one.
Pietersen & ECB fail the test 9:42pm on 08 Jan 2009 Not quite the awful stuff the cricket correspondent of The Independent was putting out recently but still missing one very central point. One which will continue to recur and which the ECB have shown incapable of understanding.

KP is unbelievably, frighteningly driven. Some call it selfish, others single minded. At least those who are scared of such a powerful motivation do. The ECB should know how to handle such people. Giles Clarke is supposed to be a successful businessman. There are people as driven as KP in business. I had lunch with one recently. They aren't all that rare. They're not all that common either but they are around. And are going to get more common in cricket as the amount of money involved gets bigger and bigger.

The ECB is guilty of totally mishandling this situation. It could and should have been dealt with behind closed doors. Unless hard lessons are learned by the ECB something similar is going to happen again.
Pietersen's gamble too far 8:10pm on 07 Jan 2009 Hard questions need to be asked of the management of the ECB. They appointed KP and Moores in the first place after all. They are the ones who let speculation run wild for 8 hours after the first reports of KP quitting came out.

The ECB's statement tells us very little other than that they are not prepared to answer questions at the moment.

KP's detractors will always say that he's South African and not English. What they miss is that he is frighteningly driven. And I mean frighteningly. I've seen this up close in business. Driven people polarise opinion; those who believe in them perform better, those who don't are scared of them, they obstruct and block and are moved on or the driven person is moved on.

English cricket has never seen someone as driven as KP. The suits at the ECB certainly haven't and they are scared because KP sees things clearly. You either help win test matches or you don't. No middle ground.

Claims of naivety in captaincy are useless. KP admitted that he has lots to learn and the ECB knew that when they appointed him. Where was the support when he needed it? Moores simply doesn't have the international experience to support an international player. No slight on the guy, it's a statement of fact.

Mike Atherton talked today about "the cult of the coach" becoming more prevalent. Look at Australia since John Buchanan moved on. Tim Nielsen is another in his mould but Australia are fading now when they arguably should have started rebuilding earlier. Look at Bennett King and the West Indies. Failure. Look at Greg Chappell and India. Failure. Look at John Bracewell and New Zealand. Failure. Over reliance on stats, science and management speak over international experience won't always get you results.

Look at Gary Kirsten and India - success. Does Kirsten spout management speak? No. Look at Dav Whatmore and Sri Lanka - success. Does Whatmore spout management speak? No.

This is a mess of the ECB's causing. Where do we go from here? I doubt we will see any answers to hard, straight questions from the ECB. This must surely influence how people will vote in the upcoming ECB Chairman elections.
Moores set to lose Pietersen battle 10:33pm on 06 Jan 2009 There's not much here we don't already know from other sources - Mike Selvey, Simon Barnes, et cetera. Not forgetting Angus Fraser's ill considered rant, a very poor piece of journalism which did little other than show that Fraser appears to be jealous of KP.

KP is seriously driven, to an extent that many people would find frightening. I've seen this type of motivation in business people: when people appointed to work with them fall below the standard expected they are moved on. Or should be, depending on the organisation concerned.

KP feels that way about Moores. Stick a laptop in my hand and I'll get all the stats and video footage anyone could want. Coaching, especially at the top level, isn't about robotically quoting stats and platitudes to the media. And whatever Moores' plus points from his career as player and coach at Sussex, the perception I have is that of the stats quoting machine.

Who will do more for English test cricket over the next few years? If the ECB think KP will do more then he's the man who the ECB should back. But guardedly, making it clear that there will not be a repeat performance.
Wikipedia is censored 1:04pm on 08 Dec 2008 What you're saying here then is that the IWF have been doing this, acting self-appointedly a la Mary Whitehouse, for quite some time. Now the IWF has been shown to have made what is in my view an error of judgement which affects one of the most popular sites on the web.

If this image is indeed illegal then why haven't the music stores been taken to task? Others have mentioned the cover of Nirvana's Never Mind - surely that must also constitute "potentially illegal" material as well. Where is the consistency here?

ISPs who criticise the IWF will get branded as doing nothing to prevent child abuse so they're going to keep their mouths shut.

If the image has been ok since 1976 then why the sudden furore about it now?

Let's have a full and open discussion about the IWF, what it does, whether it has any accountability and why ISPs take the IWF's word for content being classed as illegal. Surely an organisation with such power to demand and get ISPs to censor should have some degree of accountability.

RJBrad doesn't seem to realise that the IWF is preventing people from accessing the image by placing it on their blacklist. They have a case to answer. The image might not be all that tasteful but it isn't child porn.

One thing is for sure: thanks to the IWF's handling of this, the image they sought to block is now the most popular one on the internet.
Serious questions to answer 6:59pm on 03 Dec 2008 Where is the incisive questioning to find out why the Speaker did not ask to see a warrant? You are the man on the inside, so to speak, where is your insight to educate those of us who do not have access to the corridors of power?

I see your anti Conservative bias comes out again with your last point. You seem to miss the fundamental point that as voters in a democracy we, the people, are entitled to hold the government (whatever persuasion) to account.

No government has ever got everything right and I'm sure this Prime Minister has received plenty of leaked information when in opposition. Call it karma if you like.

Civil servants leak information, whatever the party in government, to the irritation of the government. You know this. Stick to reporting rather than spinning.
Thrills and spills at the Super Series 3:43pm on 29 Oct 2008 I've watched quite a bit of the Stanford games (thanks to my other half having satellite tv) and I'm not feeling any atmosphere from what is being shown on the screen. It's just not grabbing me at all.

Even with the various former West Indian "greats" endorsing Sir Allen Stanford something just doesn't feel right about this series.

Aggers' report and KP's comments seem to suggest I'm not the only one feeling this way.

While I'm here, credit to David Morgan for saying that the ICC's decision to retrospectively change the Oval 2006 test's result to a draw was inappropriate.
Gordon gets personal 6:11pm on 23 Sep 2008 My mind is already made up; no amount of spin doctored speech and vague promises will alter the fact that I will vote Conservative and will urge my family and friends to do the same.

It hasn't been reported on this website but the Metropolitan Police have refused to investigate the alleged breaches of Data Protection law by BT working with Phorm. The government has stalled on this issue unacceptably, passing it around like some unpleasant parcel which they hope will disappear.

Now the government are saying that all 14 year olds will have ID cards foisted on them.

If this government was "listening" as it claims to be it would have scrapped ID cards and acted against BT and Phorm. It hasn't.

I could go on about the litany of shame and failure of this government. Failing education, health provision and law enforcement - although they have introduced over 3600 new offences I feel no safer now than before.

Brown lacks any kind of presence in my view. As for Milliband, Millibland would be a more appropriate name.

Ultimately there is no substance behind the facade of spin from this government. It is time they were removed from power.
Frail batting costs England again 8:05pm on 30 Jul 2008 Simfas - I know a couple of places Collingwood might like to chill out at :) The guy's out of form, selecting him was a mistake. Simple enough.

The rest? Village.

I get fined and mercilessly mocked if I do something deemed as "village". The fines book would have come out today for the England team.

V For Victory was a slogan during World War 2. Let's bring it up to date with V For Village.

Foster in as wicketkeeper. There's a list on another well known cricket website comparing recent England keepers' performances and what their errors cost against their batting. IIRC Prior comes bottom of that list.

Vaughan the Prawn (that's going to stick now, watch for the seafood jokes) is paying for his poor form and shellfish approach (sorry, couldn't resist it) to team selection. Closed shops don't work. Strauss should get the job.

Much as I don't rate Owais Shah that highly, the guy deserves a chance. He can't do much worse. Same for Bopara to replace Collingwood.

Until we get some hard work in our batting whoever we pick as bowlers won't stand much of a chance.

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