Cricket is a unique sport. When you bat and bowl you are onyour own. Nobody can play the shots or bowl the ball for you.
But you are also an individual within a team framework.There is room for talented people because nobody wants to watch 11 robots.
There is even room for awkward so-and-so’s as long aseveryone is clear about the team objective and the individual doesn’t put ‘I’before ‘team’.
You do not even have to like each other or go out andsocialise with everyone.
In fact it is a good thing that the players want to spendsome time away from each other because nowadays they are together an enormousamount of time travelling, practising and playing.
But when Alexandre Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers theirmotto was exactly what it should be in cricket: “All for one and one for all.”
I think Kevin has forgotten that. Everyone deserves a secondchance so I am glad in some ways that we are going to see him bat for Englandagain.
It is quite obvious that during the summer his hubris gotthe better of him.
He came back from the Indian Premier League with bags ofmoney and hangers-on telling him how fabulous he was and it all went to hishead to a point where he thought he could and pick and choose when he playedfor England.
I do not think his agent or his advisers did him any favoursbecause whatever advice he was given, it took him a hell of a long time toapologise to Andrew Strauss, his team-mates and the English public. It took hima month to get to Strauss and two months to issue the apology we heard onTuesday.
Suddenly he has realised if he does not play for England hewill be tarnished forever. Sponsors will soon disappear and he will be forgotten.
His best friends and advisers should have been telling himimmediately it all blew up: “Apologise, hold your hands up and say you aresorry.”
If people were telling him to do that, he was not listening.And if they weren’t telling him, he should sack the lot of them.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has not made it easy forhim. It played hardball while the press he received was terrible.
The public also did not buy into his view that he was biggerthan the team.
At one point it was suggested he blamed a parody Twitteraccount for all his troubles. He thought his team-mates — Graeme Swann andStuart Broad — were behind it.
But that was just a smokescreen to divert attention. He wasthe one who sent the texts to the South African players and rocked the boat.
There is someone on twitter called Fred Boycott. David Lloydcomes into the commentary box to tell me something funny that Fred Boycott hastweeted.
I do not do Twitter. I do not know how to find it. It ispartly flattering but it is water off a duck’s back and I don’t care. Move on.
That is how Kevin should have treated it. It is part ofbeing in the public eye.
If and when he returns to the side the senior players willhave to make an effort as well.
There will be no problems with the juniors because all theywant to do is play and be picked.
But the senior guys have to meet him halfway. Kevin cannotexpect them to forget all the issues that have brought this to a head.
But they need to find it in themselves to forgive him.
He needs to show he is worthy of a second chance, because hewill not get a third, and his attitude needs to be a lot better.
It is quite obvious by giving him a four-month contract, theECB sees this as a trial period.
For it to work, Kevin has to grasp it cannot be everybodyelse’s fault. In the past he has fallen out with South Africa and left, thesame happened at Nottinghamshire and Hampshire. Now he has fallen out with England.
There is always this honeymoon period with Kevin andeveryone he plays with loves his runs and ability.
But then it seems to go wrong and now he should ask himselfwhy that is the case. What changes? Well, it is him, not other people.
The puzzling aspect to the past few days is the confusingstatements released by Kevin and the board.
Kevin said he wanted to apologise to “my team-mates, all theEngland supporters and the ECB for the situation which has arisen over the lastcouple of months.” We knew before Tuesday he had already apologised to Strauss.
The ECB also said it was satisfied that Kevin did not conveymessages that were derogatory. So what was he apologising for if he didn’t doit?
Those of us around the game know some of the things thathave been going on this summer.
The messages he sent were leaked by the South Africans.Eventually, when those players sit down to write their books, we will get toknow what Kevin said.
I am absolutely sure he is still smarting over the way theECB sacked him as captain.
To do it over the telephone was awful, although I have sincelearned Hugh Morris felt he had no other option because the decision had beenleaked to the press. It was then agreed Kevin could resign and save face.
But Kevin has to get over that and move on. From now onKevin has to accept responsibility for his words and actions.
No more problems. No more excuses. Just bat and make us allhappy watching him.