Poor Piers Morgan cannot bear to admit the truth about my sporting prowess

  • Post

  • 13 July 2014

  • Posted by Alastair Campbell

  • 1

For two days in a row I have to rebut the heinous slurs of the right-wing media. Yesterday The Sun on Sunday on my work in Albania, today mon vieux ami-ennemi Piers Morgan in the aptly named Mail on Scumday. I do not allow the wretched rag in the house, just as I don't allow our dog to foul the carpet. But what with Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and all the rest, you cannot avoid the odd link sneaking through one's defences, and here is Piers' wholly inaccurate account of a recent cricket match in which we both participated. Take a look at the picture of me taking the selfie with my mates KP, Lara, Murali and Sachin and you get close to the profound jealousy my mateship with these guys inspired in Morgan, who tweets more about cricket than he does about current affairs, despite knowing even less. But the worst thing for Piers - which somehow is not mentioned in his MoScumday piece, is that before we bowled, we had to bat. As he is a dreadful batsman, he was in at Number 11, and didn't get a bat, because I - Number 7, standing in for Freddie Flintoff - was still at the crease, having hit 26 off nine balls, including boundaries off both Kevin Pietersen and the world's best ever left hand swing bowler, Wasim Akram. Piers had accompanied my walk to the crease with cries from the boundary of 'knock his head off, Wasim … you'll be back in a minute, Campbell …' only to be stunned by my wonderful knock, all the more wonderful because it was the first time I had played in several decades. So as Piers sulked, my mates Sachin Tendulkar and Gordon Greenidge and Brian Lara were carrying me off the field shoulder high having steered our side to a reasonable score. As Shane Warne rightly said: 'Christ, Alastair, what a winner you are compared to that total loser Morgan!' Indeed, Shane, indeed. And of course the winning mentality (the subject of my next book out next year) is what led me to do a Mankad on young Arjun Tendulkar, who was thrashing Morgan and others all around the ground. The boos Piers mentions were heard only by him. Shane Warne did not withdraw the appeal, the umpire, journalist Mike Walters, just didn't accept it. Alas, I was surrounded by non-winning wimps. As for Piers' claim that I was hit for more than he was, this I am afraid is plain fantasy. As he rightly says, he was hit repeatedly for six by KP having texted me in the morning to assure me 'my sole mission is to get KP's wicket today.' Ho ho ho. Nobody hit me for six. So the day proved I was a better batsman and a better bowler than Piers, and more committed to the art of winning. With my cricketing superiority clear to all, Piers tried to show a bit of football knowledge over tea, refuting my confident assertion that Germany were the best team in the world by trotting out one of the most outmoded and irrelevant pieces of sports data in the whole of pundit land -- 'no European team has ever won the World Cup in South America.' As I said in The Guardian on June 17, ten days before I hit Wasim Akram back over his head, 'Germany will win the World Cup.' This is despite Mertesacker and Ozil who have been weak links due to their Arsenalisation. But Mertesacker has been dropped and Schweinsteiger, Kroos and Muller will carry Ozil, just as Sachin and I carried poor old Piers.    

One response to “Poor Piers Morgan cannot bear to admit the truth about my sporting prowess”

  1. It was when I got to the word ‘mateship’ that I realised this had to be a spoof. It was only confirmed by the phrase “Alastair, what a winner you are”. How long has Craig Brown been writing these posts?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Alastair Campbell’s diary: It’s time for a European army

Keir Starmer wants Britain to get closer to the EU. The war in Ukraine and Trump’s military posturing put European security at the heart of that realignment... Continue

13 January 2026

488. Is Iran on the Edge of Revolution?

Could the Iran protests finally break the Supreme Leader’s brutal reign, or will the regime's deadly crackdown contain the unrest? If the US intervenes militarily, what would a Trump-style plan for ... Continue

13 January 2026

170. President of Moldova, Maia Sandu: Holding the Line Between Democracy and Putin

How did Maia Sandu fight Russian disinformation in Moldova? What is it like to have a war in the country next door? Will the European Union accept Moldova with Russian troops in the country?  Rory a... Continue

12 January 2026

China Vs USA: Who Will Win the AI Race?

Who really controls AI; governments, corporations, or no one at all? Is AI becoming a new kind of global arms race? And, can we keep humans in charge of systems that move faster than we do? Rory and ... Continue

8 January 2026

487. Is Starmer Rethinking His Approach to Europe? (Question Time)

What do Keir Starmer’s comments on 'closer alignment' with the EU single market actually mean? After the Bondi terror attack, how can a centrist government respond to national trauma without fuellin... Continue

8 January 2026

Alastair Campbell’s diary: Maia Sandu, the leader who stood up to Putin

The president of Moldova saw off a vicious campaign from Russia by educating the public about the threat and mobilising them against it. Would we do the same here?... Continue

7 January 2026

486. Does Maduro’s Capture Put Greenland at Risk?

Is Venezuela the start of something bigger? If this isn’t regime change, what does Trump actually want? And, has Trump just handed Putin a win?  Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these ques... Continue

6 January 2026

169. Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia vs. Musk, AI, and the Battle for Truth

Who gave us an encyclopedia in our pockets? Why is the statement that Donald Trump is the "worst president in US history" allowed on his Wikipedia page? How do Brazilians and Americans differ on the... Continue

5 January 2026