Ashes victory for viewers will plunge cricket into poverty, ECB warn

Freddie Flintoff will go down as the beefeater who rescued one of sport's crown jewels if Ashes Tests are restored to terrestrial TV.

But Flintoff, whose heroic suppression of the Aussies in both 2005 and 2009 did more for English cricket's image than any cosmetic makeover, will get little thanks from Lord's for his stirring deeds.

An independent panel's recommendation that home Ashes series should be shown on free-toair television was greeted with predictable squeals from the England & Wales Cricket Board, where the ruling blazers know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Ecb chairman Giles Clarke - the man who jumped at a Texas billionaire's casket of fools' gold - claimed the move would have a "disastrous" impact at grass roots level, taking bats and balls out of the hands of children, women and the disabled.

The panel, chaired by former Football Association executive director David Davies, has recommended to the Government that home Tests between England and Australia are restored to the list of crown jewels from 2016.

That would prevent Sky Sports, who paid £220 million last year to renew their exclusive four-year deal with ECB, from screening Tests exclusively to homes armed with satellite dishes.

And Clarke fears that being forced to sell Ashes Tests to freeto-air broadcasters would slash ECB's revenue by £40m a year, from £66m to £25m, and plunge cricket into depression.

He said: "We are in a position where the Prime Minister has, quite rightly, promised a golden decade of sport. If Mr Davies' report is implemented, there will be a decade of decay across the recreational game.

"The economic impact on cricket would be devastating. We wouldn't have a hope of coaching the 10,000 new coaches we are training in the next four years. We would have to cut that out.

"Our current estimates are that half the players at least would have to be made redundant, so we see it as being something that would take cricket back to a position of extreme poverty."

As Flintoff plundered with bat and ball in 2005, Channel Four's Ashes viewing figures peaked at 8.9 million. When Frederick the Great tweaked the kangaroo's tail again last summer on Sky Sports, however, his satellite audience was barely a quarter as much.

Armchair fans would have more sympathy with Clarke's emphasis on balance sheets ahead of cricket reaching out to a wider audience if counties did not squander so much money on Kolpak players - mainly South Africans - who qualify as non-overseas signings because of spurious European passports.

Half of the 18 first-class counties rely on annual £1.5 million handouts from Lord's to survive. It would not necessarily be such a bad thing if reduced income forced them to concentrate more resources on home-grown youngsters than smuggling expensive imports through the back door.

The Davies Report will also flush out terrestrial TV channels who have paid only lip service to cricket for a decade.

Since home Tests were de-listed from the crown jewel untouchables in 1998, the BBC have shown the national summer game little short of contempt.

The Corporation did not even bother to bid for televised cricket last year, yet they found £200m of licence fee-payers' money to blow on the polluting bedlam of Formula One.

Ecb chief executive David Collier admitted: "It was a surprise that their priority for investment went in that direction, but that is something for the broadcaster to answer."

Cricket was by no means the only sport up in arms at the Davies Report, which recommended that the Epsom Derby, rugby league's Challenge Cup final and the Winter Olympics should all be sacrificed from crown jewels.

And the proposal to slap a terrestrial TV-only preservation order on the whole Wimbledon tennis fortnight and Rugby World Cup was also condemned by their governing bodies.

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Flintoff: I won't overdo it

Andrew Flintoff has promised not to compromise his England and Lancashire commitments by over-stretching himself.

The 31-year-old all-rounder is currently recovering from knee surgery following his retirement from Test cricket in the summer and when he returns to fitness he will do so with ambitions to be the world's best limited-overs cricketer.

Part of that plan involves him taking control of his own playing schedule, something which led to him rejecting an incremental ECB contract earlier this year.

Instead, he will be able to pick and choose his own assignments and the indications are that he will attract lucrative offers from almost every major cricketing country.
But, having signed a three-year deal to continue as a one-day player for Lancashire, Flintoff insists he will not compromise his fitness for club or country by taking on too much.

Flintoff told Sky Sports News: "We've looked at my injuries over the last few years and that's why I gave up the longer form of the game.

"I was struggling to get through 20-25 overs day in, day out or week in, week out and it was taking its toll on my body. I'm not going to give up Test cricket and then kill myself playing any other cricket I can find.

"I want to play tournaments and games which excite me. The IPL is obviously one of them, and I'm contracted to Chennai for another year, and there's Lancashire and England too, if selected.

"Personally, I'd also like to try and play in Australia. I wanted to go at 16 but my Mum wouldn't let me. I worked at Woolworths instead, but as I said, I won't be killing myself by playing anything and everything."

Reflecting on his ongoing recovery, Flintoff appeared to backtrack somewhat from his previous declarations that he would be ready to feature in the one-day leg of England's trip to Bangladesh in February.

"It's going slowly, but hopefully everything can go according to plan and I can get back in the nets and get practising again because I'm desperate to get back to it.
"I've had 10 weeks on crutches so it feels strange walking again and there are some strange feelings around my knee. There's a lot of hard work ahead of me to get back on the cricket field and when that's going to be I can't say at this stage.
"I did say I'd like to go to Bangladesh in the one-day squad but whether that's unrealistic I'm not sure."

As for his Old Trafford future, Flintoff was clear in his aims.

"To sign a new deal is what I wanted to do. I've played for the club since I was nine and I don't want to play anywhere else in county cricket," he said.

"I've got personal ambitions but I've got team ambitions as well. I've won two trophies at Lancashire. I've been at this club a long time and I want to add to that.
"Personally, yes I do want to be the best one-day player in the world, it's something which I feel I can do. Just playing the two forms of the game I can focus all my attentions on trying to be that player.''

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Wright: I am not Flintoff

Luke Wright is not interested in comparisons drawn between himself and Andrew Flintoff.

The only similarity Wright sees between the the two of them being the role of all-rounder.

England continue the search for a successor to the Lancashire star following his retirement from Test cricket earlier this year and as he continues his rehabilitation from knee surgery.

The two-and-a-half-month tour to South Africa, which England have just embarked on, offers the chance for possible candidates like Wright and Stuart Broad - the name mentioned as the most likely to fill the void - to stick their hand up.

But, after being asked about the possibility of replacing Flintoff, Wright insisted there were not many parallels.

"Obviously you aspire to do what he's achieved, he was a world-class player and will hopefully continue to be so when he comes back," the Sussex all-rounder said.
"But, for me, apart from the all-rounder role, there is no real comparison. He's 6ft 6in and bowls at 95 miles per hour and I'm under six foot and probably bowl 85(mph).
"So to compare it is not something I look to do - I'll let other people do it. I just look to do things the way I can and hopefully I can achieve as much as he has in the game, but in my own way."

The 24-year-old is yet to kick on after his blistering debut in 2007 - he blasted 50 from 39 balls against India at the Oval - managing only one further half-century in his 25 one-day internationals.

"I enjoy my role"

However, his recent form has seen him force his way into the Test team as well, meaning he is in all three squads for the matches against the Proteas.

He continued: "I enjoy my role and love where I'm batting. I've always said that I don't mind where I bat as long as I play.

"But it's nice to be playing that all-rounder role, I'm batting sort of seven and still getting a good bowl. So that's what I've always looked to do. I want to be doing the full role, so I'm happy."

Despite his satisfaction with his current place in the England team, Wright is keen to show there is more to his game than just an attacking style, pointing to his display during the Champions Trophy semi-final loss to Australia last month.
During that game he came in with England reeling at 101 for six before hitting a patient 48 from 68 balls and shared a 107-run partnership with Tim Bresnan to rescue his country from a dire situation.

He added: "I think the nice thing about it (that partnership) on a personal note was that it showed a different side of my game. It was not all crash, bang, wallop that I've been renowned for.

"Obviously a lot of the time I get pushed up the order to go into powerplays, which I'm happy to do, but that was a chance to actually bat and show people another side."

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Flintoff to retire from Tests

England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has confirmed that he will end his Test career at the end of this summer's Ashes series.

The 31-year-old has accepted defeat in his long-running battle against injuries and said, "My body has told me it's time to stop."

The Lancashire all-rounder, man-of-the-series during England's stunning 2005 Ashes success, made his announcement today after struggling to overcome a succession of injuries during the last four years.

He has had four ankle operations and is battling to be fit for tomorrow's second Test at Lord's.

In the first Test in Cardiff, Flintoff suffered a recurrence of a right knee injury, which follows an operation earlier this year to cure a degenerative problem in the joint which flared up during his stint playing in the Indian Premier League.

That latest injury setback persuaded Flintoff that after 75 Tests for England, during which time he claimed 212 wickets and scored 3,658 runs including five centuries, the time was right to end his Test career and concentrate on playing international cricket at one-day and Twenty20 level.

"My body has told me it's time to stop," he said. "I've been through four ankle operations, I had knee surgery just a couple of months ago and had three jabs in my knee on Monday just to get me right for this Test so I took that as my body telling me that I can't cope with the rigours of Test cricket.

"Since 2005 I've done two years when I've done nothing but rehab from one injury or another. Two of the last four years I've spent just in rehabilitation and I just can't keep doing it for myself, my own sanity, my family and also for the team -because they need to move on as well.

"It's been something I've been thinking about for a while and I think this last problem I've had with my knee has confirmed to me that the time is now right.

"For the next four Test matches I'll do everything I need to do to get on a cricket field and I'm desperate to make my mark.

"I want to finish playing for England on a high and if you look at the fixtures going forward, the way my body is suggests I won't be able to get through that."

Flintoff's Test career began aged 20 back in 1998 when he made his debut against South Africa at Trent Bridge and included player of the series awards at home to South Africa (2003), West Indies (2004) and Australia (2005).

He was given the captaincy in 2006 following a knee injury to Michael Vaughan and led England to an impressive drawn series in India that year and at home to Sri Lanka, although he was less successful when he led England to a 5-0 series whitewash in Australia in 2006-7.

His time with England has also been marred by several brushes with team management, including the infamous pedalo incident during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean when he was stripped of the vice-captaincy. Only this month he was disciplined for missing a team bus during a trip to Belgium to visit First World War sites.

Those incidents did not seem to affect his popularity with the crowds, however, and Flintoff admitted: "I love playing Test cricket, but the decision has been made for me - I don't think I've been left with any other choices.

"I've not been playing Test cricket very often over the last few years so it's bitterly disappointing but it's something I've not been doing very often anyway.

"It's also important for the team that I make this announcement because they need to move on. They can't keep waiting for me to get fit or for me to play a game here and there - they need to give someone else a chance to make their way in the game.

"I would have liked to have stamped my mark more, but I had three years from 2003 to 2005 when I had everything going my own way. I got a few man-of-the-series awards on the bounce and I tried wholeheartedly and gave my best every time I went out there.

"Since 2005 I have just been plagued with injury so I've got the opportunity now to finish on a high by helping England to win the Ashes and it will give me great pleasure if I can play my last Test at the Oval and we can win the Ashes - it doesn't get any bigger than that."

Flintoff's contract with Lancashire ends next year and he plans talks with captain Glen Chapple, chief executive Jim Cumbes and coach Peter Moores to determine his future with the club he has played for since being a schoolboy.

"I've not spoken to Lancashire about that yet and I still have a year of my contract left with them and I will have to discuss with them what the best way forward is," he confirmed.

"I've given up Test cricket because my body can't cope so playing four-day cricket could also be a problem, particularly as the fixtures come thick and fast."

But despite the obvious temptation to play one last time in a Test match at Lord's, Flintoff insists he will only play this week if his body is fit enough to withstand the rigours of playing against Australia.

"I've chatted to Andrew Strauss and he is very supportive but I will make my decision on whether I will be fit enough to play in the Test match and not because I want to play one last Test for England at Lord's," he added.

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