Exclusive video footage of the ECB-Pietersen disciplinary hearing

Without wishing to diminish the suffering of Jonathan Agnew, if some anonymous adolescent shouted “I hope you get Ebola and die!” either in the street or on the internet, I’d just laugh at their childishness. Reacting to such juvenile twattishness just inflates their already over-developed sense of importance.
Does he not “quit” Twitter on a fairly regular basis?

Both the KPGenius and the Textgate affairs were ridiculous, in my opinion, and for the same reason.

People bitch about their colleagues, especially if that person is in a senior position and especially if that person is a strong personality. We’ve all done it. It’s normal.

I think it’s entirely possible that Broad, Bresnan and Swann didn’t actually physically contribute to the KPGenius tweets, but surely they must have had a good moan/laugh about KP a few times in the hearing of Broad’s friend Mr Bailey? Just as KP must have had a whine or two at the IPL about Strauss’s conservatism. Unfortunately, in both cases somebody was around to pick up those bits of everyday disgruntledness and use them later.

Pietersen is quite right to complain that the two events were treated differently. They were both silly occurrences, though likely to disrupt the team, and should have been dealt with in a mature way. Pietersen should have been helped to understand that there was no real hatred behind the KPGenius tweets and Strauss should have been helped to understand that somebody in the SA camp was playing games to destabilise his relationship with KP. Instead, one event was supposedly solved by statements of non-involvement, despite evidence to the contrary, and the other was turned into an operatic saga of disgrace and banishment.

Two footnotes to this: 1) Mr Bailey appears to be an odd young man. Why did he so persistently boast to Alec Stewart, whom he didn’t know, about the KPGenius account?
2) In this day and age of international cricketers, does anybody really seriously believe that ‘Textgate’ was the only time players on opposing sides have communicated in a friendly way during a match or series? in 2006/7 Flintoff was going out drinking with the Australians and sitting in their dressing-room for a chat – it wasn’t approved, since we were being slaughtered, but he wasn’t banished for it.

Apart from being Twitter quitters, the thing in which Agnew and Mike Selvey have in common is that they are pretty good cricket minds with a good turn of phrase, thus well suited to columns, but low quality as actual reporter/journalists. Agnew claims to be a balanced reporter, but he also holds a clear position like a columnist/pundit would. Is this a peculiarity of sports journalism? You would never hear Nick Robinson taking a line like a newspaper leader. Agnew does it every day in KP vs ECB. For whatever reason, be it lack of intellectual chops, or undeveloped critical thinking skills due to not going to university, he and Selvey have failed to navigate this contradiction in the way Atherton does successfully, and when anyone pushes back at them and they get into arguments they cannot win they get prickly, upset defensive and lose it. I have seen this time and time again. Also, they have not played for any sustained amount of time in international cricket (nor have I!), but the heightened dynamics and egos of that environment may be a different kettle of fish to the county dressing room. I don’t know for sure, but in my view it is for this group of reasons I think Agnew and Selvey get unstuck.

Agnew’s behaviour on Twitter is a disgrace. he blocked me simply because I robustly but politely disagreed with him about something last year. I have never been blocked by anyone before or since. As a long time TMS fan, I was stunned. Also he is very poor on KP vs ECB. he is clearly very pro-ECB and anti-KP, accepting Flower et al at their word without question, and rejecting KP’s statements and assassinating his character out of hand. that is straight-up incompetent journalism – he lacks balance and has failed to sceptically investigate/corroborate both sides. on this evidence he is not up to scratch as a BBC correspondent, national treasure or not. He should stick to TMS and be replaced as cricket correspondent, and I must complain to the BBC about him.

Ironically, if you think about it, Agnew’s approach to Twitter (disagreement = rudeness = banned, but me being condescending, biased and belligerent is ok) is very similar to how KP describes the Flower/Prior environment. People in position of power enforcing their will by fear, bullying and belittlement.

did you hear Agnew yesterday on 5Live, commenting after KP’s interview, when he knew KP was listening? there’s a clip on the BBC website. Agnew complains about rudeness but listen his astonishingly condescending tone on KP, assassinating his character. and I quote directly “you look at Kevin – here’s a confident brash so and so with his sunglasses on and his big smile, but actually he is really quite an insecure person I think… He is an anxious, nervous character and I think that showed very strongly in that interview” when he knew KP was listening!

And then going after KP’s wife on twitter, arguing illogically and incompetently about KPGenius then telling her to “drop the attitude”. how is that not “rude”, and “bullying”, the thing he decries and blocks his own fans on twitter for? It was astonishing to hear how misjudged it was.

The end of the road for Agnew as cricket correspondent at least, maybe at the BBC, surely? He complains people are “out to get him”. Indeed I am, but purely on grounds of competence. No one has any god given right to a job for life. Particularly seeing as we pay the licence fee, and therefore (indirectly) his salary.