By Tony Cozier
EXCEPT for a couple of clear-cut differences, Chris Gayle and Kevin Pietersen are two peas from the same cricketing pod.
Strapping, powerful six footers, they are dynamic batsmen with imposing records across all formats; Gayle has a combined total of 109 hundreds, Pietersen 98.
Both espouse a desire to continue representing their national teams even as they are in constant demand from the mushrooming domestic T20 franchise leagues whose mind-blowing contracts have earned each exceptional wealth.
Gayle enjoys life in his three-storied mansion in the hills overlooking his native Kingston, Pietersen delights in giving his Aston Martin a workout on the motorways of England where he resides with his pop star wife and infant son in luxury similar to Gayle’s in Jamaica.
In common with most sporting superstars, egos that match the size of their bank balance stimulate their competitive juices.
Only their physical backgrounds and the causes, and repercussions, of the various controversies in which they have been embroiled separate them.
Gayle is a super-cool Jamaican with the typical West Indian penchant for partying, Pietersen a somewhat less high-spirited white South African of British nationality.
As popular in the dressing room as he is in the stands, Gayle’s repeated run-ins have been solely with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its management.
Less than a week into his initial appointment as ODI captain in England in 2007, he chastised the WICB for its failure to get chosen players from the Caribbean over in time for two warm-up matches.
When he refused the board’s demand to withdraw the censure, he said: “There is no love lost between myself and the board. Will I stand up to the board? Yes, that’s me. I always stand up for what I believe in.”
It was a sure recipe for conflict with a ruling body unwilling to compromise on its several issues with its maverick captain.
Such repeated wrangling and a players’ strike in 2009 prompted Gayle’s replacement as skipper in 2010. A dispute with head coach Otis Gibson and the WICB’s chief executive Ernest Hilaire after the 2011 World Cup led to his banishment from the team for 15 months.
It took pressure from a public for whom Gayle’s belligerence, with bat and attitude, typified Bob Marley’s lyrics, “standup, stand up, stand up for your rights” and, eventually, the intervention of three Caribbean prime ministers to end his exile.
It did not stop Gayle telling it as he saw fit. As recently as January, he openly railed against the omission of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the World Cup squad in Australia and New Zealand, leading to a threat of disciplinary action from the board.
Now 36, chronic back and leg injuries have eliminated him from West Indies’ last seven Tests; whatever future he has would be confined to limited-overs matches for West Indies and his host of franchise teams.
Pietersen was elevated to England’s captaincy in 2008 at the pinnacle of his powers as the game’s premier batsman; he lasted three Tests and 12 ODIs before a fallout with coach Peter Moores led to his demotion back into the ranks.
It became a recurring scenario. He was said to be a divisive figure within the team, a claim that gained credence with his derision of skipper Andrew Strauss through texts to the opposition (as it happened, his native South Africa) during the Headingley Test three years ago and his disparagement of fellow England players in his hard-hitting autobiography last October.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad were dressing room bullies, he charged, adding that Broad is ‘not the sharpest tool in the box’. In a biting analogy, he described wicketkeeper Matt Prior as a “big cheese” who was just “a Dairylea triangle thinking he’s Brie”. Former coach Andy Flower was dismissed as “dreadful”. Current captain Alistair Cook was also targeted.
Given such a background, Pietersen’s stated desire to return to the England fold appeared unrealistic.
Had Gayle, even in his pomp, messaged denigration of captain Darren Sammy to, say, England players and then slagged off Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin and Jerome Taylor in widely publicised print, he would have been summarily sent packing with hardly a squeak from the West Indian public, except for a concerted chorus of “how could you, Chris?”.
As it is, the Pietersen saga has not ended with last week’s notification – ironically delivered by Strauss, now the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of cricket – that, at 34, he effectively won’t play for England again. It has simply become more confusing.
As Pietersen asserted he was “desperate” to rekindle his England career (he had been omitted since the ill-fated Ashes in Australia in 2013-14), incoming England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) head Colin Graves said in a BBC interview that he could be picked if he found a county, scored runs and the selectors felt it right to bring him back.
To Pietersen, the door was ajar; he forsook his Indian Premier League (IPL) contract to play for Surrey and emphatically made his point with his first triple century, an unbeaten 355 against Leicestershire in his first innings for Surrey. Not surprisingly, he felt that would be enough to satisfy Graves’ conditions.
His reaction to his subsequent rejection was typical: “I just find it incredibly deceitful what has happened to me”.
It set off yet another fight, this time with Graves who denied he had given Pietersen any guarantees over his future with England, charging that his integrity had been called into question “something I can’t accept.”
With Pietersen as always at its center, the drama will drag on.
There is wide support for his recall on the basis that he is keen, available and remains England’s best batsman; it was typified by fans who chanted “Andrew Strauss, are you watching?” during Pietersen’s plunder at the Oval last week and includes prominent former international adversaries.
This is set against those who regard his previous actions to be beyond the pale, now numbered among them the head of English cricket’s ruling body alongside his ridiculed former teammates.
More detonations are unavoidable during the forthcoming Ashes, the only series that seems to matter for England, especially if they are once more walloped by the Aussies, as is the expectation.
At the same time, Gayle will be well away from any potential trouble, strutting his stuff for Somerset, his 11th franchise team, in England’s inaugural T20 Blast.
