Harty on... Kevin Pietersen and the need for 3G

Tuesday evening’s announcement from Lord’s over Kevin Pietersen’s sacking/retirement (delete where applicable) from international cricket appears to have split the nation.

As one of British sport’s legendary Marmite men, you can’t help but think, that despite the player’s own quite touching ‘thanks for the good (and the not so good) years’ statement on Tuesday, this won’t be the end of the story.

On the back of one of the worst Test series in the history of the Ashes competition, is sacking one of the most gifted cricketers this country has ever produced at the relatively young age of 33, an age at which former England captain Graham Gooch still had 14 Test centuries left in him, the answer?

Pietersen’s critics will answer with a resounding ‘yes’, his career has been littered with ‘fall-outs’ and insubordination on a grandiose scale.

But, having recently reached the summit in cricket’s world order, will England get back to those heights in the coming years with a player of his talent not playing?

Perhaps part of the answer to the problem could be found Down Under?

What if, Pietersen had ended up an Aussie? And given that there are more white South Africans in Perth than in any other city in the world outside South Africa itself, it could have happened?

Would they have controlled him?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes, and probably one of the main problems here is the embedded establishment culture still prevalent in English cricket.

The Aussie’s have no real culture or heritage when it comes to cricket, half of them don’t know what an old school tie is let alone own one. They wouldn’t have put up with any of KP’s shenanigans and would just have made him play cricket, with, I believe, the obvious and ultimately positive results on the field.

As for the future, I don’t for one minute believe this is the end of the story, Pietersen has too many supporters, not only at grassroots, but also at media level.

The first time England collapse or struggle in a Test series, possibly as early as this summer, and KP’s at Surrey filling his boots in county cricket, there will be numerous calls for a reconciliation.

For my part, I’m sad to see him go, because love him or loathe him, he was one of the reasons we all watched cricket. Had the duffers and chinless wonders at Lord’s been a bit harder on him early on, things might have turned out differently, then again a bit of time in the wilderness worked for Moses, so never say never.

There was a good win for Worthing under-18s in the Ryman Youth League on Monday, 5-2 against Hastings, but more tellingly, the first league fixture for nearly seven weeks. And for one of the starting 11, it was his first competitive football game in 51 days.

With a record number of postponements at Woodside Road due to wet weather this season, in the grand scheme of things there really is only one way forward.

As Maidstone have proved, part of a long-term future is a state-of-the-art 3G pitch, something which hasn’t gone unnoticed in the boardroom at Woodside Road.

Watch this space ...