I am not quibbling about if they are good - they are simply not as good as they should be imo. The list you gave is not a short one and i think you could add a few things. One being: having to have a 'hero' in the side - this has nothing whatsoever to do with KPs actions (though he shows more, let's call it...determination than most in the side when up against it). However, he is this years sensation but he's not from Lancashire .. or Yorkshire and his motivation is not one the team can empathise with, yet the nation (and Rachael will chastise me - maybe correctly - for judging the nation by its media...well, and the good folk i've encountered in britain) seem to pin their hopes on him when the going gets rough.

As for KP himself - I dislike him immensly (as much as is possible to dislike someone i've never met. i mentally BOO when he enters the field and CHEER mentally when he's out - apart from that i generally hope england win, as my adopted country - and with zimbabwe in the tramlines). i dislike him mainly for his mouth which is obviously still smarting from this imaginary slap he received from his country (of origin). i don't think he's a rare talent (and since finding good free streaming sites i have watched a lot of himj lately - i think he's as good as i think he is: he's audacious and inventive against weak bowling and at the same time determined, imposing and ocassionally spectacular against good bowling - there are better players around, even if they're not, at the moment, in the English team. Still, i do not think he is a deliberate problem in the dressing-room. To the contrary, i think he expresses his comrardery in many obvious ways. I do however, still think there's a problem when i both read and get the general sense that "it'll be ok, KP is in next" and "we've lost, KP is out".