'KP - a supremely talented man with an uncanny ability to piss people off'
sportingintelligence832.substack.com
REVIEW By Lizzy Ammon 6 October 2014 Kevin Pietersen is nothing if not canny. This week is an international week in football meaning the sports media cycle is dead. He’s released his book. It’s an explosive read. In a quiet week, he’s getting maximum column inches. He picked his ghost wisely in David Walsh, a brilliant writer who manoeuvred his way successfully through the murky world of Lance Armstrong to get to the truth. And I'm sure Walsh is due great credit for making what could have been a messy angry rant into a readable, hugely entertaining book. He’s made sense of more than a decade of KP “incidents”. Of course, this book is Kevin’s view of events and it’s littered with exaggeration and hyperbole but underpinned with a real sense of rage, anger and bitterness – despite his claims throughout that he’s not bitter, and grateful for his time with England. To separate what’s the truth, what’s exaggeration and what he’s conveniently missed out requires a bit of cross-referring to other sources, to what was reported at the time and what other players and coaches have either said or eluded to. It's not an easy job. But the book is Kevin’s reality. And Kevin’s reality isn’t necessarily exactly reality, although certainly you get the feeling that there’s at least an element of truth in everything he writes. Nowhere do you get the feeling that Kevin was ever prepared to compromise or to change the way he was. That has been both his strength and his weakness throughout his career. But throughout the tales he recalls – especially in relation to last winter’s Ashes – there seems to be little compromise or understanding from those who worked with him and around him either. Whether or not this book moves us any further towards what is nauseatingly called closure remains to be seen. There will be some nastiness before we get there. What we aren’t any closer to really knowing is the absolute truth. There’s the Kevin truth, there’s the ECB truth, there’s the Strauss truth, there’s the Flower truth, there’s the Prior truth and somewhere in amongst all of that is the actual truth.
'KP - a supremely talented man with an uncanny ability to piss people off'
'KP - a supremely talented man with an…
'KP - a supremely talented man with an uncanny ability to piss people off'
REVIEW By Lizzy Ammon 6 October 2014 Kevin Pietersen is nothing if not canny. This week is an international week in football meaning the sports media cycle is dead. He’s released his book. It’s an explosive read. In a quiet week, he’s getting maximum column inches. He picked his ghost wisely in David Walsh, a brilliant writer who manoeuvred his way successfully through the murky world of Lance Armstrong to get to the truth. And I'm sure Walsh is due great credit for making what could have been a messy angry rant into a readable, hugely entertaining book. He’s made sense of more than a decade of KP “incidents”. Of course, this book is Kevin’s view of events and it’s littered with exaggeration and hyperbole but underpinned with a real sense of rage, anger and bitterness – despite his claims throughout that he’s not bitter, and grateful for his time with England. To separate what’s the truth, what’s exaggeration and what he’s conveniently missed out requires a bit of cross-referring to other sources, to what was reported at the time and what other players and coaches have either said or eluded to. It's not an easy job. But the book is Kevin’s reality. And Kevin’s reality isn’t necessarily exactly reality, although certainly you get the feeling that there’s at least an element of truth in everything he writes. Nowhere do you get the feeling that Kevin was ever prepared to compromise or to change the way he was. That has been both his strength and his weakness throughout his career. But throughout the tales he recalls – especially in relation to last winter’s Ashes – there seems to be little compromise or understanding from those who worked with him and around him either. Whether or not this book moves us any further towards what is nauseatingly called closure remains to be seen. There will be some nastiness before we get there. What we aren’t any closer to really knowing is the absolute truth. There’s the Kevin truth, there’s the ECB truth, there’s the Strauss truth, there’s the Flower truth, there’s the Prior truth and somewhere in amongst all of that is the actual truth.