Went to a cricketer's lunch today with Geoff Miller and Graham Gooch, obviously this took up a fair bit of their time (neither has read the book).
Miller said that as he was a selector he wasn't close to the squad but the suggestion that there'd been any type of bullying was never something that even crossed the mind of the selectors.
First thing that Gooch said was:
"I called KP earlier this week and spoke to him, which made a nice change because he never spoke to me in the nets. I'm speaking in Manchester, people are going to ask about the situation, do you mind if I talk about it and he didn't say anything. When I got to the hotel there was a note at reception that said 'no you can't'. Who'd have thought he could write a book but couldn't spell can't?"
Gooch said that if he lent KP £1,000 and he disappeared for 12 months he'd consider it money well spent. Said he's a terrific, game changing, box-office batsman who's been superb for England but the accusations he's made against Flower and Prior are totally inaccurate and it's an absolute nonsense to question their professionalism, integrity and dedication to the team. He was of the opinion that KP has an axe to grind and a book to sell and that's why it's as controversial as it is. His concern is the damage it's doing to the England team, in his opinion there are no winners from the whole thing. He also said that on the day KP played his 100th test match the players presented him with a memento in the dressing room and he stood up in front of the whole squad and coaching staff and said "This is the best team environment I've ever been in".
Didn't sound like he was to happy with Vaughan's input, saying if you want to get ahead in media you have to be controversial. I can't remember if it was Miller or Gooch but they said that maybe Vaughan was partially correct in saying KP had been mismanaged but when Vaughan managed KP he was a young player making his way in the game so was perhaps a different person and also there wasn't the distraction of the IPL at the time.
Didn't talk about any incidents in particular (texts, dossiers, twitter etc). Miller didn't say much about the situation, Gooch made it sound like he really didn't like KP and he is the one in the wrong.
Cheers for that, absolutely spot on by Gooch
And I am delighted he has picked up on Vaughan, he doesn't half talk some shite, and the bit about him managing him so well is spot on, he was a young lad who would not of questioned authority at the time. How on earth can he say he would be easy to manage? If he was in a dressing room for him for 10 years then I very much he would be that lenient.
It annoys me because Vaughan's voice carries so much weight as he was successful and a good captain, good cricketer but as a pundit he is horrific, and is constantly changing his mind.
For example he said Cook should definitely be sacked as test captain and replaced by morgan, absolutely ridiculous. imagine if they had done that
well the other postser has provided reasons why he thinks the ECB are doing a good job, and he has made some valid points
all you say is "they are horrific" without explaining why
Were you not a fan in the 90s? ECB are miles ahead of where they were then, and England are constantly producing good cricketers,
All you have to do is lose a couple of series and suddenly the whole game is in trouble. It is football fan mentality.
About 15 months ago people were saying how bad Australian cricket was, what a low it was at when they were hammered in the champions trophy, sacking their coach a few weeks before the ashes. Suddenly Mitchell Johnson rediscovers his action and speed and everything is OK again.
