Flintoff and Pietersen

Without being inside the England camp it's very difficult to know for sure how Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff get along. What you can say is that they both have big characters and play a huge role in dressing room morale. So rumours that Flintoff was involved in Pietersen's downfall as England captain comes as a nightmare to any England fan. Although today Harmison has unequivocally stated that Flintoff's support for Pietersen was total in a Cricinfo article titled "Flintoff and I supported Pietersen". (Personally I'm just impressed he didn't say "Me and Flintoff..."!)

But unfortunately it's not the first time that there have been rumours about whether or not they get on. When Flintoff was captaining the last Ashes tour, rumours were rife that Pietersen wasn't playing for the team, despite being one of the England success stories of the tour. As this article from the time suggested, Pietersen himself had said that he didn't follow team instructions during the nightmare 2nd Test at Adelaide where England capitulated on the final day.

While that 2nd Test didn't paint a good picture of Pietersen as fully supportive of his skipper - despite his hundred - it also showed why Flintoff made a lousy captain. He huffed and puffed and his shoulders dropped as England fielded on the 5th day, leaving Hoggard to put a consoling arm around his shoulders and try and remind him of his responsibilities to the team as captain. It's very possible that current animosities between the two started during that Test - both would have been distraught afterwards and looked for reasons why they slipped to an embarrassing defeat.

So what to make of it and how does it effect the England team? Well for all their talismanic qualities, the two are completely different. Reports suggest that Flintoff likes to relax over a beer with his mates and family. Pietersen likes to prepare every last detail and when he's not thinking cricket he relax with celebrity mates. But what makes their relationship tricky is that they have different approaches to get to the same goal - England winning. Their not poles apart - they're close enough to overlap. Neither could be accused of anything but total loyalty to the England cause (I hope I'm not proved wrong by Pietersen taking a lucrative IPL offer and turning his back on England - I'm sure I won't but you can never quite say never). And there is total respect for each other - Pietersen pushing Flintoff up the batting order against all statistical evidence to the contrary proved that.

So it's now down to captain and coach (in that order) to ensure that their shared goal is the main focus, not how the team gets there. Both will need to feel included and both should be told now what happens when Strauss has to leave the pitch (I would give the Test captaincy to neither and use Cook or Collingwood if necessary but the ODI "vice" captaincy could be a thornier issue). It's classic man-management - all be it very tricky man-management - and if Strauss can get it right while maintaining his batting form then his position as England captain will be a very strong one. If he struggles to pull the two of them together then he will go the way of the two previous England captains and be forced into resignation, but that is the subject of another post....