Flintoff announced today that he is going to stop playing test matches after the current Ashes series. This isn’t something I saw coming, although now it has I can see the reasoning behind it from his point of view. His body does seem to be breaking down more often than not for some reason or another, and committing to five day tests isn’t necessarily as easy as it used to be for him. He probably doesn’t want to let his country down either, saying he’s fit and then turning out not to be.

It will also allow him to pay more attention to things such as the IPL, and gain all the riches that come with that. It makes sense, although it is disappointing from England’s point of view. He adds such a lot as a player that we used to not be able to cope without him, but the truth is we’ve played more and more without him recently that it isn’t such a shock or problem that it used to be. He stopped scoring consistent, big innings quite a while ago and although his bowling and desire is missed, we can move on in the knowledge that he isn’t around and look to the future.

Freddie will be remembered for some great Test Match memories – Pretty much everything from the 05 Ashes, and a personal favourite of mine a few years back when he told Tino Best to “mind them windows Tino…” Youtube link here. We’ll still have him around for ODI’s and thats better than not having him at all.