Taking Spin to new depths

Nathan Astle's retirement from the NZ cricket team in the middle of a competition and two months out from the World Cup has so much bullshit surrounding it that if you seriously believe what's in the papers, next time you answer the front door you'll see the Tooth Fairy and check your chimney too 'cause there's probably a fat man dressed in a red suit stuck up there.

Nathan Astle interviewed December 2006:

"I'm really enjoying it at the moment. I have to get to the World Cup first and then, maybe [I'll play] one more year or more - who knows? All I can say right now is that I'm enjoying my cricket and that I'm pretty much taking it as it comes.

I think you know when it's time to walk away and I've got to say that I don't feel like that at the moment - and I don't think I will in the near future. In fact, I don't think about retirement at all now."

Nathan Astle Press Conference January 2007:

"I've been fighting the enjoyment and motivational aspect for the last eight months and I was very close to not coming here but I really wanted to give it one last crack and see if I could find what was lacking."

Unless Astle has some multiple personality disorder (which cannot be discounted if you take his recent sporting performances into account), we have a major case of PR Spin/B-U-L-L being fed to the public in some amateur attempt to hide what's really happening.

Which of course sets off the rumour machine full tilt. So here's my scenario:

Bracewell wanted Astle dropped. Fleming didn't. Disharmony brings in CEO - who was going to Dubai - to sort it out. Tells players you play and selectors select (check your job descriptions). As a reward for long service, Astle given the "opportunity" to "retire" rather than be dumped.

Makes more sense than the palaver I read this morning in the papers.