Piers Morgan has issued a grovelling apology to England cricket legend Sir Alastair Cook “for the 38 weasel references” in a (one-sided) feud on social media more than a decade ago.
At the height of the controversial exiling of Kevin Pietersen from the international fold following the debacle of a 5-0 loss in the 2013-14 Ashes series in Australia, Morgan vehemently defended his good friend Pietersen on a regular basis and demanded his recall.
Both the then England captain Cook and the director of cricket Sir Andrew Strauss were targets of the notorious Morgan social media vitriol, with one Twitter post from the broadcaster stating: “As for you Alastair Cook – what a repulsive little weasel you’ve turned out to be. Aside from worst ever Ashes tour captain.”
In the years that followed, the former Daily Mirror editor and Britain’s Got Talent panellist was adamant that “hell would freeze over” before he would apologise to Cook and Strauss for his criticism, but things appear to have changed.
Morgan appeared alongside Cook, as well as Michael Vaughan, Phil Tufnell and David “Bumble” Lloyd, on podcast The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show, and finally backtracked on his comments – claiming he was simply frustrated by Pietersen’s omission.
“Me and Alastair fell out without ever meeting, because I still feel that I felt that the whole thing was just really badly handled with Kevin Pietersen,” explained Morgan.
“I loved watching Kevin Pietersen bat. He had been, to me, the greatest postwar batsman we produced – certainly the most entertaining. He was fit as a fiddle; he had been the top scorer in that series, and yet he became the sacrificial lamb who never played for England again.
“The real victim was the England cricket fan, who would have loved another five years out of Kevin Pietersen. I just felt... the fact he never played again, after 33, still to me feels like that should have been better handled.
“I have to admit I was very full-on against you [Alastair] personally without knowing you. And when I look back at some of the things I tweeted about you, I know you’re not on social media, but I did go over the top.
“So, I will take this opportunity. I’m sorry for the 38 weasel references.”
In typical Morgan style, he couldn’t resist getting in a few more digs at Cook, who for his part has acknowledged that the fallout from the Pietersen saga was the toughest part of his career.
The former England skipper still racked up an incredible 12,472 Test runs and 33 centuries before retiring from international cricket in 2018, and is now the sixth-highest Test run scorer of all time as well as the second-highest run scorer for England (behind Joe Root).
And while Morgan conceded that Cook was a remarkable player, he remains highly critical of his captaincy skills.
He said: “I say this with great respect, because as a batsman, and as an opening batsman for England, very few people could compare with Alastair Cook’s record, and I have great respect for that. But I don’t think captaincy was your strong point.
“But I talked to Mike Brearley [England captain in the late 1970s] about this, and he had a lot of big egos in the team when he was leading it. How you handle those people and get the best out of them often dictates how good the team is.
“When I ran a newsroom with 400 people in it, a lot of the best talent were really difficult people. How you managed them and kept them on side determined how good the paper was. With a sports team, it is the same principle.
“I think those players with big egos, like Kevin, needed a different kind of management. That is where I personally think captaincy was not your strongest suit.
“I look at Ben Stokes and I think he has grown into being an amazingly strong, good captain in all areas of what that job now involves. It is not just the playing bit. It is everything around running the England team and the media. It is a very hard job.”
