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KP, Fred; talent, love, respect
By Will 2 months ago Add your comment below
Great piece from Andrew Miller on the differences in public perception of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.
Yet Pietersen’s devotion to excellence is the very same attribute that alienates him from a fickle British public. From the days of Henry Cooper through to Eddie the Eagle and Frank Bruno, plucky and personable underdogs have always trumped sportsmen with genuine claims to greatness.
“It is peculiar how Pietersen is portrayed,” says a media colleague who has worked with him at close quarters. “He claims not to read the papers but that is definitely not the case. He takes criticism very personally and he is certainly not happy about it. I suspect the South African link will never allow him to be the Freddie-esque man of the people he so craves to be.”
According to Paul Burnham, founder of the Flintoff-worshipping Barmy Army, Pietersen’s persona is a direct challenge, for better or worse, to everything that British sports fans hold dear. “At the moment we are what we are as a culture. Personally I love it and wouldn’t want to change it, even though it isn’t what you want if you want to win all the time,” he says. “Freddie is old school and England’s fans can relate to that, whereas Pietersen is probably the most misunderstood cricketer there is. He’s got a really friendly personality but for some reason people don’t like his body language. He exudes confidence but it comes across as arrogance.”
“I think Fred comes across exactly the same as me,” says Gough. “He’s a bit of a joker who likes a drink and he plays his cricket in the right spirit. KP is slightly different. He’d take a wine bar over a pub any day, and that’s not a knock at him. He just enjoys that buzz and that edge about being a top-class sportsman. But because he wasn’t brought up in this country he still doesn’t quite understand how things work and how people look upon celebrities. It can be a difficult place if you make it a difficult place.”
Tags: andrew-flintoff, andrew-miller, kevin-pietersen |
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