I love the summer. Its sunny. Sometimes. Its tennis season. Though I play all year, in the rain, the ice, the snow, hence the ice-pack around my ankle this and every morning currently. People are generally happier in the summer. Ok, not Ed Miliband, probably not Queens Park Rangers fans and people who burn easily. By the sun. Not, like, with a flame-thrower.

And, of course, there’s cricket. Our national summer game. Where on Village Greens and in parks all over the country you see the men dressed in their whites, leisurely playing the definitively British game under a clear blue sky with a ‘crowd’ of 17 people watching in deck-chairs, some of whom are actually awake. Ahhh cricket. I see this scene often. From a fast-moving car on its way back to London, probably to watch a recording of Spurs 9, Wigan 1 on the Sky Box. To help me through the summer months and tortured years.

And this year’s big question is: why is Kevin Pieterson not playing for England in the tests against New Zealand. (Small country round the corner from Australia. Population of 250 people but they manage to produce the best rugby team in the world and a pretty respectable cricket team too. The All Blacks and the… errr… All Whites. How the f*** do they do that so consistently???)

KP, as we call him, is without doubt the best batsman in the country. If he wasn’t before last weekend, his 326 (or thereabouts) runs in a league innings certainly marked him as ‘a bit useful with the bat’). But its never been about his unquestionable ability. Its about the man. Or rather, its about the Tosser. Because KP causes friction. With everyone. With his captain, with his team-mates, probably with his wife too. Nobody likes him. And not just because he’s South African, which is grounds sufficient to dislike anyone, but because he’s a prickly character. Who chooses to extend his personal conflicts and even petty gripes, into the greater world by Twitter and other social media. Then he struts back into the dressing room with usual arrogance.

So do you select players who are disrupted and hated? Just because with them you have a greater chance of winning? Or will his prowess with his bat be offset by the negativity he tends to produce in all around him? Well they’ve left him out in the wilderness, and quite rightly so. But if it all goes tits up against New Zealand, will Andrew Strauss et al be brave enough to leave him out for the Ashes??

Who cares? Its only cricket. But Manchester United trying to kidnap Harry Kane is simply fucking criminal. That’s our other summer sport: football negotiations and transfers. Far more exciting than cricket. Mowing the lawn is more exciting than cricket. Fortunately, Gareth Bale is coming back to Spurs because those hateful Madridistas hate him and we love him. And really, football is all about love. Nothing to do with money whatsoever. That’s why its the beautiful game.

Happy Friday

A xxxx