Flintoff To Retire After 2009 Ashes Test

The shock announcement from the England camp today, is that all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will retire from Test cricket after the end of this Ashes series against Australia. Flintoff said “my body is telling me things and I’m starting to listen. I’ve missed two years out of the past four so my career has been curtailed by injury.” 31 year old Flintoff has in fact missed out on 25 England’s last 48 matches and has had operations on his ankle, shoulder, hip and knee.

Flintoff has announced  he now planned to concentrate on one-day cricket and would like to play in the 50 over World Cup in 2011 and believes he still has a contribution to make and said “I’m giving up Test cricket, I’m not giving up cricket. I enjoy the shorter form of the game and I want to be the best I can.” The cynic might suspect that the greater financial awards now available in the IPL, might also have something to do with his decision.

At the start his Test career even he would acknowledge did not get off to the best of starts and it was only when he started  began to train seriously that he became a forced to be reckoned with. He became a true Test all-rounder under the tutoring of the new England captain, Michael Vaughan who  took over  in 2003.

Under Vaughan he was the leading England player in the unforgettable  2005 Ashes series test , scoring 402 runs and taking a remarkable 24 wickets. He was renowned  as a safe pair of hands  in the slips and became a folk hero to England  cricket fans with his aggressive fast bowling and crisp batting. After 2006 his form steadily declined in the Test arena and he has never quite reached the heights of 2005. when he was at his peak.

Andrew Strauss the current England captain said of  Freddie “He’s had a dramatic impact on English cricket over the last few years, the way he’s batted, the style in which he’s batted. For a long period he’s been probably one of the bowlers in world cricket that opposition batsmen least like facing.”

Whilst his statistics may not be in the most impressive, the big Lancashire all- rounder has a huge personality that has reached out to the cricket and non cricket fan alike. He has been became a hero to a new generation of boys taking  up the glorious game of cricket. The Andrew Flintoff story is not quite over yet, as I write it is not yet known if he will play a part in the Lord’s test, but the stage is set for him to play a significant part in ensuring the famous Urn, returns to the hosts.