Is KP worthy of No.1 title?

[finchenderson]

Personally i do not think that he is.

I am saying this from the perspective of a loyal English cricket fan. Sure , the stats may say that he is the best but who would you have in your team , KP or Ponting or Smith etc.

I believe that he needs to mature more and not get out when his team needs him most ... think the Sri Lanka match, WC '07. He may be rated No.1 but is he true of the title? I would put him in the top 3 ODI batsman but not necesseraly at No.1 ...

 

[Swervy]

Personally i do not think that he is.

I am saying this from the perspective of a loyal English cricket fan. Sure , the stats may say that he is the best but who would you have in your team , KP or Ponting or Smith etc.

I believe that he needs to mature more and not get out when his team needs him most ... think the Sri Lanka match, WC '07. He may be rated No.1 but is he true of the title? I would put him in the top 3 ODI batsman but not necesseraly at No.1 ...

well he has been incredibly consistant, and when you consider he has played 19 games (out of 48 ) vs Australia or South Africa, an average of 57 is pretty damned good...in his 42 innings, he has gone passed 50 18 times

 

[adharcric]

Ponting easily.

 

[southafrica]

Pietersen will always be seen as South African, When he's doing well, people will always say how stupid South Africa were to let such a talent go, and when he's underpreforming, people will call for him to go back to where he came from...

It happened with Anderw Strauss, (who I think is England's Best opening batter). He had amazing series against New Zealand and South Africa, but you'll be surprised how many English people I speak to feel that the England team would be better without Strauss in thier lineup, despite the fact that he still has a high average, and captained them to a couple of test wins...

Should Pietersen be number one? Nah, there are better, more consistant players around at the moment.... Matthew Hayden is in unbelievable form, besides, Pitersen still has a lot to learn... how to pace an innings, when to be aggressive and defensive, and, above all things, how not to piss everyone he plays against off...

 

[southafrica]

Oh, and for those of you who think the post above was a plea for Kevein to return to South Africa, no thanks, we've showen we don't need him to be number one...

I've never bought his excuse of leaving South Africa because of quotas... look at AB de Villiers, Dale Styen and even Paul Harris, all bright young stars for the future, and all white... If you look at the current South African squad, every player deserves to be there on merit, Gibbs, Ntini, Prince...

Pieresen's move was nothing more than a financial oppertunity which turned to gold when he finally became comfortable with his own game...

Bottom line: if you're good enough to play for South Africa, you will make the final 15, and anyone who disagrees is either fundementally racist or chronically short-sighted

 

[open365]

Bottom line: if you're good enough to play for South Africa, you will make the final 15, and anyone who disagrees is either fundementally racist or chronically short-sighted

That is one of the most hipocrytical statements i've ever read.

Racial quotas aren't there to force every white player out of the side, having examples of 3 white players in the South African side as proof that quotas aren't influencing the system is ridiculous.

KP left because he lost his place in the side due to the colour of his skin which is disgraceful.

Just ask Goughy how quotas effect youth cricket.

And imo i think KP should be number 1, his consistency in scoring has been immense, i can't acctualy remember a game where he didn't make a meaningful contribution.

 

[open365]

Pieresen's move was nothing more than a financial oppertunity which turned to gold when he finally became comfortable with his own game...

A financial oppurtunity?

KP spent his first season in England playing for a club side because he got turned down by Northants, moving country was a massive risk for him as he wasn't half the player he is now, to say that his move was motivated by greed is again ridiculous.

 

[adharcric]

Oh, and for those of you who think the post above was a plea for Kevein to return to South Africa, no thanks, we've showen we don't need him to be number one...

I've never bought his excuse of leaving South Africa because of quotas... look at AB de Villiers, Dale Styen and even Paul Harris, all bright young stars for the future, and all white... If you look at the current South African squad, every player deserves to be there on merit, Gibbs, Ntini, Prince...

Pieresen's move was nothing more than a financial oppertunity which turned to gold when he finally became comfortable with his own game...

Bottom line: if you're good enough to play for South Africa, you will make the final 15, and anyone who disagrees is either fundementally racist or chronically short-sighted

Goughy to lay the smackdown in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...

 

[simmy]

Of course he deserves his place at the top. He has played against the best attacks a lot recently and has scored incredibly consistently, almost single-handedly at times.

I think he will be at the top for a while.

 

[southafrica]

Goughy to lay the smackdown in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...

I don't care about "Goughy" quiet frankly, I get upset when all people see wrong with SA cricket is the quota system, and I don't care if I stand alone on this issue, I strongly believe that every player in South Africa's World Cup squad deserves to be there... I felt Dippenaar lost out, but he lost out to de Villiers... a white player...

 

[adharcric]

I don't care about "Goughy" quiet frankly, I get upset when all people see wrong with SA cricket is the quota system, and I don't care if I stand alone on this issue, I strongly believe that every player in South Africa's World Cup squad deserves to be there... I felt Dippenaar lost out, but he lost out to de Villiers... a white player...

Bosman? Petersen? Explain.

 

[open365]

I don't care about "Goughy" quiet frankly, I get upset when all people see wrong with SA cricket is the quota system, and I don't care if I stand alone on this issue, I strongly believe that every player in South Africa's World Cup squad deserves to be there... I felt Dippenaar lost out, but he lost out to de Villiers... a white player...

No one has denied that they aren't there on merit, but, it has happened in the past with Boucher being replaced by Tsoleklie or whatever he was called and if you didn't have the quota system you would also most likely have the best one day batsman in the world playing for you.

 

[southafrica]

"Racial quotas aren't there to force every white player out of the side, having examples of 3 white players in the South African side as proof that quotas aren't influencing the system is ridiculous."

three young white players... I think you missed my point... weather you're a young black player like Bosman, Prince or Zondeki, or a young white player like de Villiers, Harris or Styen, you have just as much chance of making the squad, it's all about talent. Most black players say that they prefer not to be selected because of their colour, but because they are good enough...

I've said this before and I'll say it again, Pitersen was not good enough at the time to make the South African lineup, it had very little to do with skin colour. England can keep him, we don't need egotistical, narrow minded, short sighted, racist people in our positive lineup.

 

[southafrica]

No one has denied that they aren't there on merit, but, it has happened in the past with Boucher being replaced by Tsoleklie or whatever he was called and if you didn't have the quota system you would also most likely have the best one day batsman in the world playing for you.

Boucher was dropped because he was not preforming by the standards which we expected.... He has come back a better player. If South Africa was a racist setup, Boucher would not have made a come back, ie, we would have kept him out the side.

If you remember correctly, de Villiers made his debut against England because Boucher was dropped... We used 3 different keepers in the English series: Tsolikiele, Boucher and de Villiers. The fact that Tsoloikle is black is irrelevant.

 

[prakesh]

And imo i think KP should be number 1, his consistency in scoring has been immense, i can't acctualy remember a game where he didn't make a meaningful contribution.

Whenever his daddy, Asif has been within 200 yards.

 

[The Baconator]

Bosman? Petersen? Explain.

Bosman's there because his name is so cool. I'll give you Petersen though.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Boucher was dropped because he was not preforming by the standards which we expected.... He has come back a better player. If South Africa was a racist setup, Boucher would not have made a come back, ie, we would have kept him out the side.

If you remember correctly, de Villiers made his debut against England because Boucher was dropped... We used 3 different keepers in the English series: Tsolikiele, Boucher and de Villiers. The fact that Tsoloikle is black is irrelevant.

So Tsolekile played why, exactly? Please don't attempt to suggest that it was because anyone thought he was actually good enough.

 

[open365]

"Racial quotas aren't there to force every white player out of the side, having examples of 3 white players in the South African side as proof that quotas aren't influencing the system is ridiculous."

three young white players... I think you missed my point... weather you're a young black player like Bosman, Prince or Zondeki, or a young white player like de Villiers, Harris or Styen, you have just as much chance of making the squad, it's all about talent. Most black players say that they prefer not to be selected because of their colour, but because they are good enough...

I've said this before and I'll say it again, Pitersen was not good enough at the time to make the South African lineup, it had very little to do with skin colour. England can keep him, we don't need egotistical, narrow minded, short sighted, racist people in our positive lineup.

It was his domestic side he didn't get picked for.

And you're quite blatantly wrong, by virtue of having quotas in sporting set ups you are automaticaly denying some people their place in a given side because of their skin colour so like it or not, people are missing out because South Africa's racist history.

And how dare you, a South African, call Kevin pietersen racist, and short sighted, his chance at a professional career in South Africa was being hindered because he was white, simple as, how that makes him short sighted i have no idea.

 

[southafrica]

Bosman's there because his name is so cool. I'll give you Petersen though.

Okay, Bosman has the potential to become a very dangerous opening batsmen. all he needs is some guidance and experiance. It's a knowen fact that South Africa battels in the spin department, and Boje ruffeled a lot of feathers with Cricket South Africa last year... So, Peterson is our next choice of spin with Botha only just having corrected his action. It's not like Peterson has come out of no where, he has been playing for South Africa for a couple of series now. This is a tricky one, because whoever South Africa picks in the spin department, will never measure up to the likes of Murilitherin, Hogg or even Panesar... Peterson bats pretty well down the order aswell...

 

[southafrica]

It was his domestic side he didn't get picked for.

And you're quite blatantly wrong, by virtue of having quotas in sporting set ups you are automaticaly denying some people their place in a given side because of their skin colour so like it or not, people are missing out because South Africa's racist history.

And how dare you, a South African, call Kevin pietersen racist, and short sighted, his chance at a professional career in South Africa was being hindered because he was white, simple as, how that makes him short sighted i have no idea.

He's short sighted because he blames his exclusion from the side on racism on not on the fact that he just was not good enough at the time. It's easy for him to blame his circumstance on the quota system, because his ego will never in a trillion years allow him to admit he just was not good enough.