Chaos may be a friend to Bob Dylan but it certainly isnt to English cricket. Thinking back to the sublime Ashes victory in 2005 I envisage a united team, led by people who had planned meticulously and then executed their well laid schemes with unparalleled acumen and nous. England was jubilant, reacting in that vague, dazed manner that we always do when our teams actually do well, don't bottle out and are managed with a level of competence. In unison we were startled that a team with Britain based insignia on their chest had the temerity to win and to beleive they could win. There was abundant romance and verve in the way England played both collectively and individually. The shackles of Australia's dominance were cut loose with Samson-esque abandon by players at the height of their game; Freddy Flintoff batted and bowled like a legendary figure from the days of yore, defying medical science in the manner he hit the most sixes in an Ashes innings with a disclocated shoulder and by consuming the largest amount of alchohol in human history after the event. Kevin Pietersen justified the gaudy streak running through his hair by smashing world class bowlers all over pitches the length and breadth of his adopted nation. Not only that but when it really counted he was there, hitting his first test century to secure England a draw at the Oval and with it the Ashes in an innings that included a baseball style thump down the ground that became an apt metaphor for his swaggering talent and Englands confidence as a whole.
Four years on and the contrast is difficult to measure. England are a team in disarray destroyed from within by the sheer inability of captain and coach to form some kind of workng relationship. Peter Moores had large Zimbabwean shoes to fill as head of the England set up and it seems as though it was a task that was too much for him. When it became clear that the relationship, or rather lack of it, between coach and captain was a significant problem (a story broken by Pietersen's own newspaper column) the seismic shock caused by the revelation probably couldnt be anticipated. At the time most commentators were in agreement that there was only one way out; Peter Moores had to go, an assessment seemingly shared by Pietersen in his "It's me or him" style ultimatum. When it was announced that Moores had been sacked the inevitable seemed to have happened but when a few hours later Pietersen made his shock resignation in order to jump before he was pushed the implications of such a public dispute became clear. The diagnosis is unanimous: the problem should have been kept in house. In the upper echelons of international sport nothing is more damaging than a public rift and Pietersen's decision to move his problems with his coach into the open smacks of conceit and a wilful desire to force the hands of those whose responsibilty it was to solve such a crisis. If it is the case that Pietersen would of been removed regardless of his resignation then credit perhaps needs to be attributed to the ECB for exterting control over their captains growing tendancy to beleive he was bigger than the team. Gifted and integral as Pietersen is a climate whereby the most talented players decide on their coaches based on personal opinions is a dangerous sporting precedent to set and one which was only avoided by getting rid of Pietersen.
That should have been enough. The agents of chaos seem to have had their wicked way with the turmoil inflicted on English cricket and in an Ashes year no less. But today it emerged that Freddie Flintoff did not support the decision to sack Moores perhaps suggesting that Pietersens actions do not sit well with the England camp as a whole. A new layer of morbid interest will now varnished onto an already macabre story and the English cricket team could be involved in an MTV documentary designed to outline the most cringeworthy personal car crashes. Perhaps suggesting that the England team resemble Kerry Katona is unfair but the situation is pretty dire. Heaped on all their problems is a now seeming rupture at the very heart of everything that made them briliant: Pietersen and Flintoff a powerful symbol of the raw talent with which this generation of English cricketers had been endowed. Whether it was Pietersen's arrogance, Moores' stubborness or a silent group of Machiavellian Australians England enter an Ashes year questioning where it all went wrong
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