The first Test match of the historic battle between England and Australia wrapped up in a stalemate, with a flat pitch and some great record breaking play to boot. The first Test went rather smoothly, give or take the fact that
true to character, Aussie Captain Ricky Ponting was crying about some umpire decision and making yet another one of his ‘points’. Other than this the usual insults from the Barmy Army were controlled and the Kangaroos’ fans who were outnumbered by the Brits,
behaved well, just as hosts should.
The England Cricket Board (ECB) especially took special measures to monitor their team’s behaviour in the land down under. They banned the players’ wives and girlfriends from accompanying the team until the 2nd Test,
so as to allow the players to “focus fully on the game.”
The ECB and team Director Andy Flower also gave the squad set-guidelines to use the micro-blogging website, Twitter. The guidelines were based on “what to post and what not to post” as the players have a rather spotty history of
ranting on the site.
But England’s right hand batsman Kevin Pietersen could not stay away from unloading on Twitter. The “proud English cricketer” told his 94,604 followers and the world about the level of anger he felt as he was unable to practice
at the Adelaide Oval.
A continuously drizzly afternoon welcomed the English players as they arrived at the stadium to begin their practice session. But the morning’s rain water hindered the nets practice session and Pietersen chose Twitter to blame
the ground-staff for not covering the nets as the rain began.
The former Captain was unhappy about the nets situation as he asked his followers “What should a groundsman make sure he does 2days out from a test match????”
He answered back by tweeting “Cover the nets when it rains maybe??” The goateed man ended his rant with a description of the situation as “PATHETIC!!!” – The exclamation marks clearly demonstrating how angry he was.
The men from England had to then practice indoors to prepare for the second Test match scheduled to start from Friday.
Pietersen has already faced punishment for foul-mouthed bashing of the English Board on Twitter after being dropped from the One Day squad in August.
However, an England spokesman was quick to respond before the matter got out of hand saying that the touring team was not seeking to blame anyone but felt “frustrated when they can’t practice outside”.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Australia-c844 Cricket Association also released a statement explaining that the “nets were uncovered only for a few minutes” as the ground staff were trying to protect the Test match pitch firstly.
Australia was lucky to use the ground earlier in the morning as the rain was restricted to a light shower later on in the day.
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