Jay Landsman: “It’s not Jimmy’s fault.”
Bill Rawls: “No?”
Jay Landsman: “No. Jimmy is an addict, sir.”
Bill Rawls: “What’s he addicted to?”
Jay Landsman: “Himself.”
Apologies if you haven’t seen The Wire (where have you been? It’s to television what the 2005 Ashes is to cricket – it really is that good), but I would like to put forward Kevin Pietersen as the Jimmy McNulty of English cricket.
It’s not only the perceived self-regard, as evinced in the above dialogue. Just as McNulty is “good police” (and fans will know how to pronounce po-leece), there has never been much doubt as to KP’s ability as a batsman. Equally, the two share a lack of respect for those in authority – the “chain of command.” While admirable in many ways, this insubordination will only ever lead to one winner. At heart, The Wire is about the individual’s impotence in the face of the institution. Both McNulty and KP were fated to end their careers somewhat tragically. As Lester Freemon puts it in The Wire, “You put fire to everything you touch, McNulty, then walk away while it burns.”
The accuracy of this analogy has not been disabused this week, with the publication of KP: The Autobiography. “What the f*** did I do?” is perhaps the most famous McNulty quote, and I would suggest it would make an apt subtitle for KP’s book.
That’s not to say that KP is entirely to blame. Andy Bull, reviewing the book for The Guardian, writes that “the balance, the sense of mutual culpability in what went wrong, is lost, because the wounds are too raw, and the anger too strong.” As that “mutual culpability” line suggests, there are many sides to this story.
As ever, sport reflects society, and this whole sorry saga is no different. Consider the PR machines on both sides, the role of social media. Consider, too, those two sides. On one, a self-entitled man-child; on the other, an institution that has little regard for the players and the fans. Should ring a few bells with fans of The Wire, perhaps the greatest mirror ever held up to society.
Cricket, by being subjected to this very public and increasingly juvenile squabble, is Way Down In The Hole.