The very public sacking of cricketer Kevin Pietersen this week, the similar departure of football manager Michael Laudrup from Swansea and the rather odd, yo-yo pseudo-departure of Leeds manager Brian McDermott all raise interesting issues about attitude to success and failure in sport, and, indeed, all areas of life, these days.

Billionaire owners and selectors share characteristics, it seems. They all want success and they want it now, if not sooner. In pursuit of that, some are prepared to pay millions of pounds to get rid of unsuccessful managers. But the fact that the opposing team’s owners are similarly motivated seems sometimes to escape them. At least Wycombe Wanderers are giving our popular local football manager – Gareth Ainsworth – the chance to do what he can with the limited funds available, despite the recent frustrating absence of success.

In cricket, England’s comprehensive loss didn’t just happen in a vacuum. There was another team playing against them and it was a team packed with testosterone and aggression that really wanted to win and arguably deserved to win. To a keen cricket fan who stayed up in the wee small hours to witness this depressing humiliation, it seems to combine spite, envy and folly to scapegoat the highest scoring batsman on the apparent basis that he is charismatic and ruffles feathers. Our best sportsmen have frequently included mavericks who irritate those charged with running their sport. Handling the wayward genius is an art that escapes them it seems. Better to cast them aside and cherish the steady, non-controversial players who toe the party line, even if they never set the airwaves alight.

I have frequently in my profession had to work with actors or directors whose methods and behaviour is, shall we be kind and say, challenging. If the end result is great, then we willingly knuckle down and endure the irritation. Of course, when the performance is even worse than the behaviour, they don’t last long. I heard the story of an actor whose fame turned him into a monster who sacked the caterers because they left a label on apple that he bit into. It seems he had forgotten that he, as the producer, had hired them and would have to bear the cost. But most ‘difficult’ people will respond if approached sensibly. More often than not, they are difficult because they have high expectations from everyone, including themselves.