The claim by Kevin Pieterson that he intends to carry on batting in the same manner which has cost England so dearly in this Ashes series is hardly the stuff of news. He has batted for his own ends throughout his career. If this latest outburst isn't enough to cost him his place in the Test side, I don't know what is. It is clear he considers himself to be more important than the team. That is all well and good but the statistics of his career don't bear this out.
He has made a handful of innings with his back to the wall and a great many when England were winning anyway. These are hardly the credentials of a team player and do not bode well for camaraderie. His solitary fifty in six attempts thus far down under do not speak of a world class player. A world class player gets his head down and grinds out the decent scores with self discipline. After over a hundred bites at the cherry, Pieterson does not yet seem to have grasped this.
Since England now find themselves three down with two to play, the case for change is now compelling. He has to go now since he is offering us nothing new. We know what we'll get with Pieterson and it will unforunately always be on his terms. There is no "I" in team and he has failed to take this on board. The fringe players with less talent must now be drafted in to show the advantage of good old fashioned application and self discipline.
To my mind, Pieterson has come to epitomise the worst excesses of the modern game in which the star player has superceded all else with his agent frequently calling the shots. If somebody like Brian Close were the captain, Pieterson's Test match career would have ended before it began. Great players average over 50 in Test matches. After over a hundred Tests, Pieterson falls well short of that mark. Adios!
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