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Fletcher: dropping Thorpe was "so hard"

19/10/2005

Duncan Fletcher has admitted that the decision to drop Graham Thorpe in favour of Kevin Pietersen going into the Ashes series this summer was the most difficult decision he has faced.

And he said that telling Thorpe he was not selected for the first Test at Lord's in June was "without doubt the worst part of his job".

Fletcher's comments, which have come to light in a Guardian serialisation of his book Ashes Regained: The Coach's Story, are revealing considering his usual public reticence.

He has revealed that the Little Genius was dropped mainly because he had not had enough cricket prior to the Ashes series, and because Kevin Pietersen was more likely to be the imposing batsman required to beat the Australians.

But the decision haunted him. Fletcher said: "Usually when such a big decision is made, it is a relief.

"But not this one. I could not stop thinking about it. Had we done the right thing?"

Elsewhere in the serialisation Fletcher, who has presided over the most successful period of English cricket in living memory, commended his players for standing up to Matthew Hayden in a heated exchange during the one-day game at Edgbaston.

Simon Jones hit Hayden on the chest with a shy at the stumps, prompting the burly Australian to approach the bowler angrily. But England players Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood joined Jones to show that they would not be intimidated.

"There are ways and means of sorting out incidents on a cricket field," Fletcher said.

"And I thought we did it 'in the right manner' there."

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