The Wicked Cricket Column

I know of at least one. A disgraceful off-the-record slur made against Monty Panesar by a club official to cricinfo in August 2013.

That isn't what happened. I had words - heated words - with the journalist and he did not overhear it. He was told it. And I believe I know by whom.

All I'm telling you, s&f, is that even the journalist himself did NOT claim to have witnessed or overheard the incident. I confronted him about it and he freely admitted he had only been "told" about it but that he believed his source.

One of the old Inner Circle lot claimed that it was Jimmy Anyon who had told him ,  but I know that was not the primary source.

Anyway, who gives a flying fig? The  whole of cricket knows the writer in question is notorious for taking fliers.  He admitted to me that he does not subscribe to the traditional journalistic practice of requiring two sources before printing something damaging : he told me he's quite happy to go into print on the basis of a single uncorroborated source and that he felt under no obligation to put the allegation to the individual concerned before publication.

All of that flies in the face of the standards that I spent my entire career as an editor demanding from my reporters .

And it's only a small jump from there to post-truth and 'alternative facts'  - or making it up, as we used to call it ('Farbrace favourite for vacant Surrey job' springs to mind...). Which is why I took a stand and said at the time that it was a slippery slope.

Hhs,

I must make it clear I am in no way supporting the journalist "we dare not breathe his name". I myself have had several personal
"run-ins" with him. He and one editor of Spin Magazine had weekly fall-outs where both would shout out, "I can't work with this person!"
and purportedly storm out of the office. There was even one rumour that when the said editor decided to spend money the magazine
didn't have on some promotional, give-away mini cricket-balls, a number were thrown at him by a said and angry person after they
arrived at the office in the post.

Whether it was him or Jimmy Anyon that allegedly overheard Monty is not my issue. It's whether Monty actually said those words.
Even if he did, they should never have been reported, as you state, especially given Panesar's potential state of mind.

I know how tempting it is to thrust some tabloid sleaze into a review or article, especially when you are trying to make a name.
But without fact-checking, it can merely become fake news. But sadly, few care these days. The once accepted skills of cross-
checking and double-checking facts went out of the window a while back, as we have seen recently re: the mainstream media during
the US Election. Such "presstituting" is now common-place where the media are little more than PR junkies for whichever vested
interest pays them.

But back to that journo. Like Lizzy Ammon, who was another one of Kim Jones prodigies, seeking that story to make a name was
always the goal and why she, herself, slipped and fell into the pale over Durham and Kent after getting work at The Times. The
opportunities now of gaining a cricketing scoop are so rare that any half chance that comes along is seized upon. Is that acceptable?
Of course not.The days of bumping into a drunken Flintoff in a pedalo, at two o'clock in the morning, are the legends of yonder. 

The Cricketer Magazine Website are publishing this week an interview I carried out a few weeks ago with Rob Andrew.

What was to be a 'meet and greet' get-together turned into an hour and fifteen minute chat and while many successful
people portray the affable gene and share an ability to get on with people from all walks of life, I would like to feel Rob
and I genuinely hit it off.



One seasoned Sussex CCC hierarchy member told me this week, he feels Rob will become the best CEO the club have had and
I echo this sentiment. Having known his two predecessors, Rob oozes an 'X' factor which the others lacked.

The in-depth interview covers a wide range of subjects from why he has taken a massive salary cut to be at Sussex; his views on
the Winter signings; his criticism of the club's former succession policy; positive but diplomatic views on the City-Based Tournament;
and how his nickname 'Squeaky' came about. The interview is around 1,800 words long

I will be placing The Cricketer weblink on this blog when it's published.