Botham not Beckham
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
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As Andrew Flintoff, England's talisman, gets ready for his valedictory Test, it is time for a bit more Botham and a little less Beckham in his approach, writes Richard Williams in the Guardian.
Flintoff's proclamation was premature and self-centred, doing nothing for team spirit at a crucial time and, like his disastrous captaincy in the 2006-07 Ashes, marginally depleting the vast stock of public goodwill built up since his England debut in 1998. And it was mirrored in the way he celebrated his wickets during the victory at Lord's, with a Beckhamesque awareness of the gaze of a hundred lenses.
In the same paper, Donald McRae interviews Australian coach Tim Nielsen on his first Ashes tour.
Nielsen speaks with parental concern about a team who seemed uncertain just a few weeks ago. After defeat at Lord's and being outplayed initially at Edgbaston, Australia were reeling. As a warm and compassionate coach, who is far smarter than his "ordinary bloke" persona implies, Nielsen needed all his intelligence and generosity of spirit to inspire a sustained fightback.
The Independent's Stephen Brenkley believes Flintoff is at The Oval this week purely for the business of beating Australia and recapturing the Ashes. Not for Flintoff a hobble down memory lane with a sepia-tinted DVD, a lump in the throat and a dodgy knee.
Former captain Michael Vaughan hadn't realised just how much Flintoff's presence in the side could lift the supporters till he sat in the crowd this summer. He writes in the Telegraph:
Fred likes to be loved and he is quite soft at heart. He needs an arm around his shoulder because he does not respond to be ranted and raved at ... Fred was sometimes difficult to deal with behind the scenes and I wouldn't agree with the theory that he was the heartbeat of the dressing room. He can be jovial and light hearted. He liked the dressing room to be a fun environment and maybe that is why his results under me were pretty good.
In the same paper Derek Pringle writes that Flintoff will leave the Test arena much as he entered it - a man with an identity crisis.
In a thoughtful blog in the Wisden Cricketer, Gideon Haigh wonders who the national team represents: s it representative of the nation, of the nation’s government, of all the nation’s cricketers, of the nation’s duly elected cricket board, of the first-class teams that participate in its domestic competition?
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo