Stuart Broad, the one you love to hate, can now be found on Twitter. You can bother him via @StuartBroad8.

A lot of people don’t really like Pietersen – to put it mildy. But this “arrogant” and “cocky” man is one of the few international sport stars who takes time to answer questions on Twitter:

The barrage of questions is part of a competition; the best question wins a signed shirt and bat.

Cynics will probably say he’s doing a bit of self-promotion, and yes, that could very well be part of it.

But Pietersen has taken time to answer hundreds of questions – even the really bad ones – in a manner that shows he is enjoying engaging with fans.

I say hats off to Pietersen.

He doesn’t have to do this, but he has given numerous fans a chance to connect with him in a way other cricketers – and athletes in general – could learn from.

I don’t like bashing Kevin Pietersen, but this is just way too funny

Well done Dmitri!

And he only joined Twitter six days ago.

Lists are always useful and easy because someone else has already done the hard work of selecting who to follow.

For example; the well known blog Cricket with balls offers three great lists on its Twitter account:

1. ex-cricketers – The old dudes who can finally say what they want
2. cricketers – Those playing the game at international or domestic level
3. cricket-writers – Professional and Amatuer cricket writers tweeting it up

Check here, here and here for more good cricket related Twitter accounts and lists.

Several new media experts, like Louis Halpern, have pointed at the benefits sites like Twitter and Facebook can have for cricket in general:

Particularly in the case of cricket, where international games are no longer covered by terrestrial television, fans have never been more far removed from their heroes. Social media platforms such as Twitter can be a perfect tonic to those disenfranchised, non-Sky subscribers, giving the ECB and individual players a great opportunity to tap into and communicate directly with their most loyal fan bases.

via Cricinfo.com

I think he has a point, but currently it is nothing more than that: an opportunity.

Most England players do not share a lot of interesting thoughts on cricket, or any other topic for that matter. They are also not the most social users, as they hardly interact with other users, like Halpern suggests.

So the loss for us ‘disenfranchised fans’ probably will not be too big if the ECB puts a ban on Twitter.

Personally, I would miss Swann’s tweets, but I don’t think it will leave a gaping hole in my timeline if he and his teammates stop tweeting. There are other cricket related accounts I value a whole lot more.

What about you? Would you be sorry if England players got banned from using Twitter?

This is part of how my Twitter timeline looked after Pietersen’s mishap spread.  (Scroll all the way down, I’m making a point there )

To me, this is why Twitter is so great. News spreads fast and you get lots of information and opinion delivered directly to you.

All you need to do is sign up for an account and start following people or lists.

Rather stupid of him – a bit of controversy he could do well without currently – and exactly why England management doesn’t like England players using social media.

But I think he has a point though.

Why would England drop him from the Twenty20 squad? Pietersen was Man of the Tournament of the last World T20 and the upcoming Twenty20′s looked like the perfect games for him to rebuild some of his shattered confidence.

Perhaps Andy Flower is looking to repeat the same trick that worked with Matt Prior – who got dropped from the one-day teams and responded in Tests. If he is, I think Flower got it wrong this time and it will just leave Pietersen in a deeper hole.

Whatever the reasoning behind dropping him, Pietersen doesn’t believe it will do him good and the decision has backfired on England management already.

Filed under: England, Twitter Tagged: Andy Flower, Kevin Pietersen ]]> http://cricket-blog.nl/2010/08/31/kevin-pietersen-vents-anger-on-twitter-after-being-dropped/feed/ 4 arnoboerman KP Fuck up tweet http://cricket-blog.nl/2010/08/17/the-twitter-all-time-xi/ http://cricket-blog.nl/2010/08/17/the-twitter-all-time-xi/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:27:31 +0000 Arno http://www.cricket-blog.nl/?p=911 Continue reading →]]>

What do you think? An impressive bunch, are they not?

Well, off course you don’t agree, so let me know how wrong I am and post your own all-time XI in the comments.

Are there any rules? Just one. I only choose between players who are active Twitterers. That’s all. Every player who has not posted a Tweet in the last month or so is no longer available for the Twitter all-time XI.

Everybody clear on that? Right, now give me your elevens!