Duncan Fletcher's book reopens old wounds
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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The settling of scores in print is bad for the game and reflects poorly on Duncan Fletcher, says Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.
Coming from the centre of the bubble inside which Fletcher sought to control the England team between late 1999 and his enforced resignation in April this year, they cannot be ignored, but in return everybody is having a go at Fletcher, which is no less distasteful. The sum of the two minuses, it is doing nothing for the good name of cricket, however much it may be adding to the sales of his book and the bank balances of himself a>nd his ghost writer.
Also in the Times, Martin Samuel says: "There are several reputations that will not recover from Duncan Fletcher’s foray into publishing. Inadvertently, one of them is his."
Matthew Hoggard, however, doesn't "give a monkey’s about the whole business concerning Andrew Flintoff’s drinking in Fletcher’s new book".
"We might think Fletcher's revelations of Flintoff's drinking, Chris Read's lack of spirit and Marcus Trescothick's mental state are spiteful and vindictive and constitute a betrayal of trust," writes Tanya Aldred in the Guardian. "But name an interested person with the self-discipline not to open the newspaper and lap them all up."
"Whatever you may have read about Duncan Fletcher, and it is fair to say that public opinion is sharply divided, this is an appropriate time to consider the profound contribution he made to English cricket," writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph.
When he took over as coach eight years ago this month, in South Africa, England were regarded as the weakest side in world cricket. They had just been beaten at home by New Zealand, when supporters at the Oval booed Nasser Hussain, the new captain, and they were the subject of general mockery. I know; I was one of the mockers. Within a year, however, they had beaten West Indies for the first time in 31 years. The following winter they became the first team to win a Test in the Pakistan stronghold of Karachi (and with it, the series). They again broke new ground when they came from behind to beat Sri Lanka 2-1 on home soil, a feat nobody had managed there after a losing start.
To read extracts from Fletcher's book, Behind the Shades, in the Daily Mail, click here.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo