ECB have approval over Sky Sports commentators

The Mail on Sunday report that ECB have vetoed Sky Sports’ plans to hire Kevin Pietersen as a commentator for the Ashes.

England cricket chiefs blocked a move by Sky to secure Kevin Pietersen’s services as a commentator for the upcoming Ashes over fears he would continue his stinging criticism of his former team-mates.

The Mail on Sunday understands that senior figures at Sky explored the possibility of employing the exiled batsman, who was banished from the England ranks following a ‘breakdown in trust’ with management and players.

But nervous ECB chiefs indicated that they would be deeply uncomfortable with him commentating during the Ashes series.

‘It was made clear that Pietersen’s presence in the commentary box would not be welcomed by the ECB,’ a Sky source told the Mail on Sunday.

If this is true – and tales like this invariably have a kernel of veracity – then three points.

Is there no end to the vindictiveness, childishness, and control-freakery of the ECB? Can you imagine any other organisation of their ilk – except FIFA – going to such lengths to punish a player for speaking out? How arrogant, petty and thin-skinned must they be? And what convinces them of their right to tell broadcasters who they can or cannot employ?

Ofcom should investigate. It is categorically forbidden  – and ethically improper – for the subject of any programme to exert editorial control without this being made clear to viewers. If a television show discusses or appraises a third party – a performer, a company, a sports team – then a viewer will assume they’re making an objective assessment. But if that subject has veto over what’s being said, the viewer is deceived.

To put this another way: the role of the Sky Sports commentators is to provide dispassionate analysis of the play they are describing, the performance of the England team, the team in general, and by extension the people who run the team (the ECB). But if the ECB are choosing which commentators are allowed to discuss the ECB – we end up living in cricketing North Korea.

Imagine if this vital principle went to the wall. Every sporting body would be entitled to dictate the editorial content of the coverage. Commentary would become an advert, not an independent critique.

The third point is this: why on earth are Sky giving in to the ECB? The latter need the former far more than vice versa. What would happen if Sky told them to mind their own business? Would the ECB run away with the ball?

43 comments

    • I wrote BTL at the Guardian in May, shortly after his second exile, that the ECB’s attitude to Pietersen can be summed up as “Forget what Snowball did at the Battle of the Cowshed, for he trod on Napoleon’s trotters.”

      Combine this with a veritable army of Squealers in the media, laughably claiming over and over again they’ve been “outmanoeuvred in PR terms” as if they don’t hold every inbuilt advantage over Piers Morgan and a load of bloggers, and the substance of the issue never stank at all.

      This is a player whose overall record in all formats still towers above that of everyone else who has worn an England shirt in the modern era, and whose Test average remains the highest for England in 33 years. And he is systematically being turned into an unperson. It’s an act of spite and propaganda far worse than all of his alleged crimes added together, and sadly there are enough soft minds in this essentially servile nation to ensure that they’ll get away with it. I look forward to a generation of people reciting all the usual blather while looking clueless if you dare to mention Giles Clarke, Srinivasan and some actual villains. There are probably some, even now, angry about NZ only having two Tests but totally ignorant of why this might be.

      The fact that Pietersen is also (notwithstanding Ian Bell’s innings against the mighty Bangladesh) our last concrete link with FTA cricket must also be an enormous coincidence, I suppose.

      • One of the most insightful and acute comments I have ever read about this whole sorry business.

      • Giles Clarke is clearly driving this, as well as coming across as an odious individual he is clearly a bitter man. I imagine a perceived or actual slight from KP that occurred during his brief reign as England captain is the root cause of this. It is sad that it ends like this.

      • An outstanding article. Thank you. Kevin has always done a professional job as a commentator. He has continually praised our ODI boys on Facebook.

        On another note with reference to Kevin being obviously fair game, unless I have missed something, I have never seen any comment on a lunchtime piece aired by Sky during the New Zealand Test. Nasser and Strauss played real tennis at the Lords court and Nasser kept referring to a tennis player called Henri whilst asking Strauss continually if he could remember the surname. Strauss didn’t react. He was referring to Henri Leconte of course and the fact that Strauss had used the word ‘cunt’ when talking about Kevin. I found it totally unprofessional and unacceptable and was absolutely furious.

  • ECB guilty conscience getting to them?? . They must have so much guilt after the lies they have told and the insults they have directed at KP fully knowing they weren’t true. To use the excuse that KP would vilify the team is a load of crap as they well know. Most of the players are friends and he has a loyalty to English cricket anyhow.. Sometimes I wonder why they are acting the way they are. Grown men being influenced by a few and not having the courage to stand up to them.The time must come when the ECB will be laid bare and all the nastiness disposed of but unfortunately I don’t think in KP’s time.History will look back on this period of English cricket and wonder how we let it all happen.Still hoping to see KP walk out in his “whites”to help his mates and his country.

  • They are trying to avoid a rerun of that big bash ponting kp interview which was hilarious.
    Ponting “so kev. I checked up with other England players and they said everything in your book was true”
    Kp “of course. I’m hardly going to lie and get sued am i”

    Absolute gold dust.

    • That remark should be repeated to anyone who has fallen for the ECB’s lies. Add it to the comments from more than half of the Ashes squad (who all said positive things about Pietersen) and there can be little doubt where the truth in this lies. Pietersen is excluded by the board because he constantly embarrasses them by exposing their incompetence. They seized on a row with Flower to justify his exclusion. My opinion anyway. KP has always been the fly in their ointment.

  • So…many…quotes…from…Nineteen Eighty-Four to choose from…

    So who in the ECB is Big Brother? And is the dressing room now officially called Room 101? Or is that just any cricket ground where England is playing against a superior team…

    • The ECB think they own the ball. Actually, the ball is a national sport which belongs to the public. The ECB are merely its temporary custodians.

      Unfortunately some key personnel at the ECB are unable to distinguish between holding a privileged position as a guardian of a sport and running their own private for-profit business.

      Sky pay for it and without them the sport in England and Wales would largely be broke. If anything, you’d expect the bullying to be going in the other direction.

  • I suspect KP’s lawyers will be interested in this and will be reviewing restraint of trade legislation

  • I really hope this is not true. ECB have gone all BCCI and the final straw in a long list of straws.

    • The parallel with the BCCI was one of my first thoughts too. The story I remembered was when the BCCI vetoed Ian Chappell as commentator because he wouldn’t undertake not to criticise Dhoni. At least with the BCCI they weren’t (to my knowledge) animated partly by vindictiveness towards by Chappell.

      “We need to show we aren’t a banana republic”. Historians will know the context of the quote. To borrow another historical quote, when I asked what I thought about a free media I replied it would be a good idea. The only surprise is that anyone’s surprised here. The ECB’s obsession with ‘controlling the narrative’ has been apparent since High Flowerism. All the BCCI did was show them what they could get away with.

  • “But we can hire the man who called Pietersen a cunt on air when he was working for you.”

    Fathomless hypocrisy and double standards.

  • Sky commentators now decide the Man of the Match at the ODIs – presumably in exchange for supporting Cook and HIS team in the Ashes – no amount of duplicity going on – it is odious but not unexpected as that’s how the ECB (establishment) work – and no doubt everyone will still support the lads …..makes me wonder how today’s supporters would view apartheid South Africa and England machinations in the 60s and 70s ……

  • Piss poor if it is true. At the start of the one day series against Sri Lanka last year, Gower referred to KP as “he who must not be named”. I thought he was joking. Maybe not.

  • I’m sure Eoin Morgan woud love to have had Kev commentating on the ODI’s

  • Pietersen has commentated on the BBC during the World Cup, on channel 9 in Australia and on Indian TV during the World T20. He’s quite an experienced commentator now. Yet Sky/ECB won’t have him. Pertty and hilarious.

    The ECB need Sky more than the other way round, but the latter value their monopoly of live cricket dearly. They are also aware that much of the public, plus a number of county chairmen, want some live cricket back on free to air. That’s probably why they are slightly nervous and want to keep the relationship tight.

  • Ofcom should investigate. It is categorically forbidden – and ethically improper – for the subject of any programme to exert editorial control without this being made clear to viewers. If a television show discusses or appraises a third party – a performer, a company, a sports team – then a viewer will assume they’re making an objective assessment. But if that subject has veto over what’s being said, the viewer is deceived.

    This and this again. It is completely outrageous, possibly illegal, and I hope that Ofcom investigates immediately. Also that TMS signs him up for the whole of the Ashes as well as the Telegraph keeping him on to write more columns.

    Of course one can see why, and it’s not necessarily because he might be critical. Numbers of people have remarked, some in surprise, that Pietersen as a commentator is informative, hugely knowledgeable and quite likeable. Too much of that and more questions might be asked about exactly why this person is being treated as slightly below Lance Armstrong on the pariah scale.

    • “It is completely outrageous, possibly illegal, and I hope that Ofcom investigates immediately”.

      Even if there were any will to investigate (and I’ll be astonished if there is), it will have been done in such a way as to allow plausible deniability.

      • With a small number of exceptions, Ofcom are obliged to investigate any complaint they receive. if the likes of us register a complaint – which you can do from their website – Ofcom will at the very least ask Sky for a response. It’s highly unlikely in this instance that enough hard, recorded, facts will surface which could prove anything. But at least Sky would know people had objected, and the issue would enter Ofcom’s radar. Broadcasters are very sensitive to Ofcom investigation – upheld complaints are very embarrassing.

    • Never, mind Lance Armstrong – It seems the ECB want to keep us Sheeple to think of KP as somehow on a level below that of Jimmy Saville or Rolf Harris – Not meaning to trivialise such matters, sorry!

  • The sheer incompetence of the ECB knows no limits. After a superb series with NZ and fans starting to get behind the team again and less focus on the morons who run the game, the ECB come out of the shadows again to stir up feelings of resentment.

  • Last night I Tweeted a Sky Sports PR to ask for a response. I also e-mailed her and the head of Sky Sports PR – both people we’ve spoken to before. As yet, no reply.

    Anyone suggesting this is about Pietersen alone is off the mark. There was very strong evidence last year that Giles Clarke pressurised Sky into curtailing Shane Warne’s criticism of Alastair Cook. What would happen if a Sky commentator began criticising the Big Three deal, or any other area of controversy? It is absolutely non-negotiable that the commentary must remain entirely independent. The commentators are there to report and analyse what they see, not endorse it as a matter of editorial policy.

  • I suppose ECB could sort of say to Sky that the next time they get to negotiate the tv deal they can give the rights to BT. Even so it is not like Pietersen has actually blabbed anything re the England team on the stints he’s already done.

    Still I don’t disagree that it is all highly sad.

  • If KP was commentating it would ruin the cricket for me. How can he commentate without being critical and if he isn’t then he is not saying what he really wants.

  • I don’t believe this story to be true. Especially as it is in the Daily Mail.

    In any case, Isn’t KP due to be in the Caribbean until mid-August?

    Had the misfortune to listen to Patrick Collins on Sportsweek earlier. He actually said “well done the ECB” with reference to this story. Garry Richardson was more sensible about it, thankfully.

    • If I were thinking of inviting someone on my show who would criticise Pietersen, and not be seen as one of the cricket “in-crowd”, it would be Patrick Collins. His cricket views seem to be confined to writing hysterical screeds against Pietersen. He’s even been given a Wisden article, if memory serves, to do it. It’s very personal with some of them.

      As for this story, this is the way it is going. It is by no means unprecedented that sporting figures who “say what they think” and who go against authority are told to calm down or there may be some repercussions in future rights negotiations. Sky have recently extended their deal to 2019 (an option they had) and know that the next rights issue may well feature a competitive bid from BT Sport who, I think, might dearly like this sport to cover their summer schedule. Pissing off the governing body is possibly not the best tactic.

      I’ve been calling them ECB TV for months now. Hussain is a pale shadow of his former self, tending to being Alastair Cook’s cheerleader. Botham is a parody of a commentator, going wildly over the top after every win. Atherton is shrewd enough to know the way the wind is blowing, and Gower, a man wronged by authority in his day, is now the very pillar of the cricketing establishment. I’ll bet Sky/ECB had a little word in Charles Colvile’s shell after he dismantled Downton the day we were eliminated from the World Cup.

  • I’ve just read this, and thought of Maxie’s superb piece the other day about the press. If true, this pretty much confirms everything Maxie wrote.

  • Boycott said on Bowl at Boycs last week that Sky made Warne talk to Cook after that “something should be done” incident, and “clear the air”. Remember all the hoo har about their conversation? I suppose the ECB put them up to that too. The DM article says the ECB is also unhappy with Warne’s commentary. I guess he’s next on the list.

    Anyone still wondering why so many of the press have been lining up to lick Cook’s boots?

    • Apparently Warne can probably go and slag off Cook with Channel 9 who are bringing their own team across. However he will probably shut up when he’s on Sky………….

  • It’s typical of the ECB and the little people who work there. Cook, Strauss and Flower. Coincidence? I doubt it.

    The ministry of truth in all its glorious stupidity and cowardness. They will demand supporters take lie detector tests as they enter the ground soon to weed out any KP supporters. The sporting version of the Stassi.

  • I can see where the ECB are coming from on this, I really can. I mean after all, you can’t imagine either they or Sky ever employing someone so staggeringly inept and indiscreet as to vilify a former team mate as an “…absolute c**t” on live TV when he mistakenly thought he was off air. Or someone who as captain would allow a culture to develop where some members of the team were involved with a parody Twitter account set up to humiliate a colleague.

    Oh wait a minute…

  • It’s a shame as when he’s commentated in Aus, I’ve found him likeable and professional and his love for the game really comes across, which is not something you ever would have believed reading the msm. How silly and how obviously desperate of them.

    This is the sort of control that the BCCI insists on having over its stable of commentators. Not a good model to follow.

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