On Her Majesty's Disservice: England's most controversial cricketers

May it be the cannabis, the aluminium bat or the underarm delivery, the protagonists of cricket have shown that they have some fascination for pissing off their opponents. The quintessential gentleman’s game hasn’t failed to produce its fair share of ‘bad boys’, and even though the fact may not be applicable to every case, it may be argued that some kind of extra-curricular activities pursued by cricketers on and off the field do provide for a bit of harmless entertainment.

The recent exile of Kevin Pietersen from English cricket is a harsh indictment of a maverick whose energies were never fully harnessed and channelized. Recent reports suggest that those energies might have been amply released in a rant against Andy Flower, in a secretly arranged team-meeting organized by Alastair Cook and Matthew Prior with a motive to discuss the coach’s methods. The rant, allegedly, was the incriminating evidence that lead to his axing.

It is difficult to brush aside the argument that Pietersen was made a scapegoat for the disastrous campaign in Australia after Andy Flower’s sacking seemed insufficient to save face. That discussion will continue in the relevant circles. Meanwhile, one can honestly mourn the loss of a superb batsman who could easily have been England’s best, and arguably is, but those of us who like to be amused will surely miss his antics on and off the field.

Nobody wants to see an ugly spat that demeans the game or one that degenerates into an unacceptable behavior such as racism, but a good old fashioned exchange of words isn’t the worst thing for a cricket lover. Sledging, heated-exchanges and staring after a well delivered bouncer are all accepted modes of aggression that are cherished under the unwritten rules of the game. However, like with everything else there are certain boundaries that cannot be crossed.

Here’s a list of some English cricketers who, against the cliche of ‘the gentleman’s game’, endeavored to express their intriguing personalities to the full through their performances on and off the field.

Ian Botham

Ian Botham

Popularly known as ‘Beefy’, Ian Botham is comparable to the tempestuous tennis players of the 80′s. He is hailed as the greatest English all-rounder and remains, still, as an outspoken observer and commentator of the game. Ian Botham did it all and is a key character in cricket’s most talked about controversies: either as a protagonist or as a monumental achiever. He was England’s hero at Headingly in 1981 when England came back from a virtually impossible situation to win the match courtesy of a 149 not out. Australia’s corresponding ‘bad-boy’ Dennis Lillee had played a bet on England in that game, when the stakes against them were 500-1, ensuing in a much talked about controversy when England eventually won the game.

Botham was suspended in 1986 for smoking cannabis and was perhaps the first player to be handed a suspension for a crime that has since plagued the game of cricket. Botham’s irresponsible behaviour had made him a favorite with the tabloids, who churned a lot of money through his exploits. A perfect bad boy story is incomplete without an extra-marital affair, and Botham wouldn’t have his story dull. He was rumoured to have been quite an escapader, but there was one damning admission atleast.

He was involved in the Botham vs. Khan trial that interrogated into allegations of ball-tampering and racism made by Imran Khan in an ‘India Today’ article. Botham ended up losing that trial too.

Botham shared a much-talked about rivalry with his namesake Ian Chappell. The two reportedly came to blows in a bar brawl, but Chappell has always denied that Botham hit him. Fortunately, the likes of David Warne and Joe Root are continuing that long-standing tradition of love between enemies.

Andrew Flintoff

Andrew Flintoff

Flintoff continued Botham’s legacy in a sense. The big all-rounder wore his heart on his sleeve throughout his international career and was perhaps one of those ‘bad boys’ who squandered a lot of potential as a consequence of their overtly jolly attitude. Flintoff grew into the trade of being bad. As a novice in 2002 when England toured India, his crime was a pardonable one as he ran bare-bodied in Mumbai after England had leveled the ODI series with one match to go. India’s Sourav Ganguly memorably returned the favour at Lords the next year, and this incident also prophesied the small affair that was to play out at the T-20 world cup in 2007.

Flintoff had just completed his over when he couldn’t contain the burst of his naughty emotions and decided to have a merry word with the Indian southpaw Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj was too eager to take on such a battle in the way of his ancients, in a spontaneous Greco-Roman style wrestling match, but the constraints of an International game meant that he had to take out his frustrations on the baby-faced Stuart Broad by smashing him for 6 sixes in an over, with Andrew Flintoff, melting in embarassment, being reduced to a curious spectator on the boundary line.

That was, however, 2007. Andrew Flintoff had seen the lows and highs of his career by then. His magnum opus was in 2005 when he was able to channelize his extreme competitiveness and was, arguably, the single most exciting cricketer of the most keenly contested Ashes series in recent memory. Flintoff rioted the Aussies with the ball, dismissing Justin Langer and Rocky Ponting with two nasty deliveries in a single over at Edgbaston and continued to be menacing in the same manner throughout the series. He played aggressive counter-attacking cricket with the bat, and every single one of his celebrations embodied the sense of vindictiveness that the English had been harboring for over a decade. His quick-fire century at Trent Bridge was the high-point of his career that pushed England over the line. He celebrated to an extent that he was tipsy when interviewed at the Ashes parade.

Flintoff’s tragic-comic moment of epic quality came at the 2007 World Cup when the incarnation of the merry-making Bacchus was rescued from drowning off a pedalo after the first ODI against New Zealand at St. Lucia. The incident soon came to be known as ‘Fredalo’ with Michael Vaughan blaming it squarely as the reason for England’s failure at the tournament.

Douglas Jardine

The legacy of Douglas Jardine has been marred by a single-dimensional reading of a multi-faceted character, who was no scheming villain but a humane cricketer with a tough side. The ‘bodyline series’ of 1932-33 that contributes so much to the Ashes rivalry is deservedly infamous. Jardine captained England to a 4-1 win Down Under through a tactic of attacking the batsmen with pace and with an intention to hurt. The images of cracked skulls and broken backs are constantly ignited in the media, thus making the character of Jardine inaccessible to us. C.K. Nayudu’s observations on Jardine as a cricketer provide us with an alternative perspective. Nayudu stated in Jardine’s obituary, “…a tough fighter, a shrewd tactician whose knowledge of the game was very sound and profound.”

Jardine was not the greatest technician with the bat, but he had mastered his unique approach and boasts of a healthy average in First-class and international cricket. On a pitch that was impossible to play on, deteriorating like a crumbling cookie, Sir jack Hobbs had commented that only Douglas Jardine could survive on it. The anecdote is a tribute to the defensive prowess of his batting. Many also tend to forget that England had conquered much of that 1932-33 Ashes series without employing the ‘bodyline’, and in doing so, we do injustice to a great, but controversial, leader.

Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen’s minor antics pale in front of the theatricality of some other bad boys of the game, but he has been controversy’s favorite child in the modern era. He does not reach the heights of the genre like Shane Warne did with his multiple talents that were exhibited in diverse domains, but he makes a case for his own limited talents. Pietersen was critical of the South African set-up, going to the extent of calling Graeme Smith a ‘muppet’, which he abandoned to cut a career for himself in England; but his early experiences with Nottinghamshire weren’t particularly pleasant. The maverick batsman had a dressing room spat with his captain Jason Gallian, who apparently threw his kit bag out of the dressing room.

Pietersen eventually moved his wares to international cricket and made an immediate impact with his aggressive stroke-play. He played some breathtaking knocks against Australia and South Africa taking on the greatest bowlers of the planet. The likes of Shane Warne and Dale Steyn enjoyed the challenge that he threw at them and his counter-attacking, fearless attitude to the game was a refreshing change from the placid, abject English side of the 90′s. Pietersen continued to enthrall the audiences with his innovative ‘switch-hit’, which was his way of flirting with the cricket laws and the debate continues.

Pietersen could have channelized his frantic energy in a leadership role, but he fell out with coach Peter Moores and publically expressed his many resentments through Twitter, including a jibe at ex-England cricketer and commentator Nick Knight. This love for communication through new media would bring him further embarrassment; during August 2012, Kevin Pietersen was pulled up for texting South African players during their tour of England, which eventually lead to his exile from English cricket for a while. Pietersen had apparently mocked at his captain Andrew Strauss in those messages calling him a ‘doos’ – which can be very politely translated as an idiot. KP was not the one to take the exile quietly and turned up as a cricket pundit meanwhile, also showcasing his dancing skills. He was re-integrated into the team after a process of reconciliation.

The final nail in the coffin was of course the underwhelming performances Down Under during the 2013 Ashes. Rumours in the media about his conflicted relationship with Andy Flower added fuel to the fire as he was made the scapegoat of a catastrophic series.