US Edition 
Andy Murray deserves appreciation not vilification for expressing an opinion on Scottish Independence
You do not have to be a 'Yes' supporter of Scottish independence to admire Andy Murray for ignoring PR advice and following his heart
“It’s not easy being me,” said Kevin Pietersen during one of his many run-ins with the England management. And there’s no doubt that responses to our greatest middle-order batsman – whatever his manifold failings – are distorted by the fact that he was born in Pietermaritzberg rather than Peterborough.
The same goes for Andy Murray. Softly-spoken and publicity-shy, Murray has little in common with the preening Pietersen apart from an extraordinary gift for striking a ball. But a surprisingly large number of people will never forgive him for the fact that a) he comes from Dunblane, and b) he still feels significant loyalty towards his homeland.
This has become all too clear since the small hours of Friday morning, when Murray made a late decision to enter the independence debate with a “Yes”-leaning tweet. Over the past 24 hours, the responses have fallen into two main categories.
Some say he has revealed himself as a cuckoo, making his nest in England while disguising his loathing for its people. The hardliners in this camp are busy clogging up his Twitter timeline with vicious graffiti.
Then there are the head-shakers who ask “Why on earth would someone in Murray’s position come out and say something like that? Doesn’t he know how badly it will play?” We are all spin doctors now, it seems; a nation of Alistair Campbells.
So how about setting up a third position? How about showing some appreciation for a man who speaks as he finds, and who makes his own decisions without first cross-checking them with his agent, financial advisor, shirt sponsor, coach and psychologist?
Top-class sport is characterised by vast wealth, superficial glamour and precious little moral fibre. Footballers may not have read Machiavelli, but they know about putting the end before the means, whether through the professional foul or the calculated sulk.
Murray sometimes seems an odd fit for this world. Indeed, one suspects he would have been an odd fit for any world. He is prickly, he is gauche, he possesses a droning voice that can put you to sleep at 50 paces. But he is also principled.
When he sent his revelatory tweet, a little after 1am on Thursday morning, he was not thinking about what it would do for his brand. He was hoping that he might be able to make a difference. Just as he is already making a difference by paying a huge annual tax bill when he could profitably relocate to Monaco. Just as he has already made a difference by purchasing and regenerating the Cromlix Hotel, a once-derelict country house near his home town.
The candour of his tweet took everyone around him by surprise, for he had been dithering over the issue for months. In the end, the emotional pull of Scotland won him over – even though he is not a tribalist by nature. His final position was the same as that expressed in a tweet from his brother Jamie, also on Friday morning: “Love UK..love the Royals.. but it's time for Scotland to stand on its own 2 feet and control their own destiny.”
As it turned out, the margin of the “No” vote’s victory was relatively healthy. But imagine if Murray had stayed quiet, and then woken up on Friday morning to a hairline verdict, like the Florida farrago that installed George Bush jnr. He would have spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have carried a few crucial waverers with him into battle.
Now it seems that the heightened emotions of sport have made Murray a lightning conductor for Anglo-Scottish resentment. And this is hugely unjust. He and his brother have taken up an honest position, which is their right. They did not reach their decisions lightly, and they did not grandstand about them – merely stood up to be counted as so many other public figures have done.
The message that Murray sent out on Thursday night will always be with him, just as he has never lived down that “anyone but England” wisecrack from the 2006 World Cup. His stance will probably affect his commercial bargaining power and earn him a few barracking comments from the stands. In the end, though, these are small prices to pay for following your heart.