cricket with balls

Andrew Flintoff just gave an interview to BBC Radio, in which he admitted that he was planning for the possibility that he might not be able to come back from his current knee problem.

This is, quite possibly, the most interesting thing that Flintoff has ever said in an interview – certainly in an interview given whilst sober. Previously, he’s always been hugely bullish about his prospects of coming back from any operation. It seems that the op he had the day after the Oval Test failing and having to have a second, more major, one has knocked his confidence, even in himself.

It is also clear that either he doesn’t contemplate coming back as a batsman only, or that the knee is so bad that, if it can’t be fixed, it is pretty well going to prevent him doing anything.

The next interesting thing that he said was that whatever he does, it won’t be commentary. Which is good news for everyone as (a) his time as England captain revealed that he wasn’t one of the game’s greatest thinkers or tacticians and (b) we won’t have to listen to his dull northern monotone clogging up our airwaves.

32 is hellishly early to have to end your career, though – especially in this day and age. Strange to think, too, that both he and Brett Lee, the couple who provided one of crickets iconic moments of the last decade, could be going out of the game together, too.

You are captain of your country.

A job you really wanted.

You are on the most important tour your country has.

It all goes a bit shit.

You crack it.

You break a bat.

You drink until you stink.

You then think about the tour as a booze cruise.

regardless you are still a national icon.

A man of the people made good.

A hero and idol to millions.

I ask you balls fans, how can cricket be struggling when a gimpy drunkard is a national icon even if he wants to live in the desert to dodge taxes.

Long live cricket.

(And Pedalos)

(And Bungee jumping)

It should be noted that I have no problem with Freddie not signing his ECB contract. White ball games, even international ones, are about fat cash, and why shouldn’t a player make some big bucks when people like Freddie have been used as money mules for Giles Clarke and his foppish hair.

There is no integrity in white ball cricket outside of the world cup, and even the ICC find ways to fuck that up, so if someone’s body honestly can’t get through 5 days of cricket, and he has showed that he is willing to push his gimpy frame to the limit to try (not just pull out all the time Jacob), then I can’t stay mad at him.

I would have liked Freddie to be a bit more honest, don’t give us shit about wanting to improve your game by playing all over the world, just come out and say, “bitch please, it’s about the Benjamins”.

However all this talk about him being an 18 million dollar player and the first globetrotting 2020 cricketer seems a bit stupid.

Dirk Nannes has already played for 5 2020 sides around the world without being freelance.

And Freddie is not that good at 2020 cricket.

In 7 international T20 games he has 76 runs, and 5 wickets at 32 (good econ of 6.44).

In domestic t20 he has a batting average of 24, but his bowling record is much better, average of 20, econ of 6.96.

Those are not the numbers of a 2020 superstar.

For Chennai he was a waste of space. Him and Oram clogged up the middle order time and time again, and he also went the distance with his bowling a couple of times.

Even when he played for the world XI he was only average.

Part of Freddie’s brilliance comes from the fact he puts in everything he has when representing Lancashire and England, two places he loves dearly.

I doubt he has a real deep-seated love of Natal, South Australia or Chennai.

Then compare him Andrew Symonds as a freelancer.

Symonds averages 48 in international T20 cricket, and 45 in domestic t20. Plus he can bowl a couple of overs, and when fit (which both men may never be again) is a predator in the field.

He’s a 2020 destructor, and his average IPL team won the title with him starring.

Chubby Chandler get people talking about 18 million dollar 5 year plans, bungee jumping and 5 continents, but eventually people will talk about Freddie on the field, and if he doesn’t lift his 2020 game, he might find himself on a celebrity dancing show.

And with his knees I doubt he could win that.

The man came out to the sort of applause that makes young men want to take up cricket and makes girls with dubious morals want to take up cricketers.

It was as if Jesus came in covered in beer and ice cream.

They stood as one unit, they applauded, the cheered, they shouted, they awed.

He did what he always does, he left his helmet off for long enough for the warmth to wash over him.

The crowd gave him the final inspiration he needs before taking on the filthy convicts.

The crowd loved every step he took.

He was hope.

19 balls later he was gone.

And the ground ignored his exit.

The hope was gone.

All they were left with was a large lad with a fucked up knee and 7 useless runs.

The oppositions all rounder had humbled him pretty easily, and the cheer he got for coming on the ground was going to have to be enough in his second last test innings.

The silence was not meant to be a slight, but it was.

They wanted/expected/hoped for more, and he couldn’t do it, so they did the crowd version of turning their backs on him.

For thousands of people in the ground this may be the last time they ever see him play, and he exited the ground to chats about Law Firms and the ruffling of the Times.

At Edgbaston I floated up a theory that Strauss and Flitnoff weren’t on the best of terms.

It was a baseless guess with lackadaisical reasoning and naked hunches.

Then I read a few stories about how Freddie had said he was as fit for Headingley as he was for Edgbaston.

Yet England didn’t pick him.

According to Freddie’s agent:

“He told them that he was fit enough to get through, that he felt no different to how he felt at Edgbaston and that he could get through and do his bit. They didn’t want him.”

So did Strauss crack it with Freddie because he thought he wasn’t fit enough to get through at Edgbaston.

Or is there something deeper going on.

England have already cleared Freddie to play in the next test.

That seems a long way out to clear him for duty.

And the wording is odd too, they aren’t saying he is fit now; they are saying he should be fit by then.

The ECB’s statement:

“Andrew Flintoff’s right-knee injury was reviewed today by his specialist in conjunction with the ECB and Lancashire medical teams. The advice received was that the swelling in his knee has significantly eased following the decision by the England management team to rest him from the last Test and that subject to further rest and intensive treatment, he will be available for selection at The Oval.”

There seems to be mixed messages going on about Freddie at the moment.

Either that or the definition of “fit” seems to be a fluid concept depending on who is using it.

This is what I wrote when he was limping around Edgbaston:

“Right now Freddie is walking towards me like a man looking for a zimmer frame, yet he is fielding at long on…”

Something is going on.

I have no idea what, but I figure I could accidently stumble onto it eventually.