Farewell Freddie

Uncertainty seemed to be surrounding every match for which Andrew Flintoff was selected. But with the announcement of his impending retirement, the allrounder, his team-mates and the England management know precisely where they stand in the longer term. However, Mike Selvey in his blog on the Guardian website believes Flintoff would be determined to leave Test cricket as a wounded hero, not a spent force.

If once he was the hub of the side, he has long since been the cherry on top of the cake instead. He and his employers will have thought long and hard about whether such an early statement of intent will channel public interest away from the series and into a valedictory tour around the country. The sort of attention heaped on Steve Waugh when he played his last series is not the kind of diversion that this summer needs.

The allrounder captured the nation's spirit in his battles with Australia and became a totemic figure, leading Paul Hayward in his blog on the Guardian website to call him a hero measured by Ashes Test combat.

The shots from four years ago remain hypnotic. They depict a kind of insurrection, with Flintoff at its head. He is consumed by the task. It becomes him. His exultation at claiming an Australian wicket expressed large chunks of the national character. The wired-up-monster-face was catharsis after all the whippings Australia had given England.

Flintoff's way of playing the game and his innate understanding of its eternal verities transcended boundaries of class and creed. Stephen Brenkley in the Independent recalls one of the most iconic of all sporting images, of all human images, which had Flintoff bending a gracious knee to console the Australian, Brett Lee, who was on his knees, immediately after the end of the Second Test at Edgbaston in 2005.

A player might have had his fifteen minutes of fame, and words can do justice to the deed, but over a lengthy career, good players produce good numbers. And so it is with numbers that one must judge Flintoff for those will not change even as legend grows, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express.

Flintoff was Ian Botham's heir in more ways than one but never quite matched the England fans' unrealistic expectations. His talent at times seemed super-human, but he was, in fact, just as flawed as the rest of us, writes Andy Bull in his blog on the Guardian website.

It was not enough because in his finest moments Flintoff displayed an extravagance of talent that seemed almost limitless. He was a creation from a comic book. The man who marked his highest score in Test cricket by hitting a six straight to his father in the second tier of the stands at Edgbaston. As Graham Gooch asked Ian Botham when he took his record-equalling 355th Test wicket with his first ball back from a ban: "Who writes your scripts?"

Six months ago, Botham had a chat with Flintoff and said if the allrounder could get the Ashes out of the way and give it one last push through the pain barrier, he should then consider leaving Test cricket behind. And though quitting the five-day game was a tough call, Botham believes it was the right one. Read his piece in the Daily Mirror.

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Australian, fears more and more of the best players, like Flintoff, will come to the conclusion quickly that there are vast amounts of money to be made, and grief to be avoided, by quitting Test cricket and playing the short forms of the game.

It is unlikely that the next generation will follow Shane Warne's lead of giving away one-day cricket to concentrate on Test matches. Comparatively speaking, there appears to be little money or glory compared to the riches on offer in the IPL.

We can only thank Freddie for his body-breaking efforts, and hope that Test cricket's next big England hero is not another generation away. The most traditional form of the game may not be able to wait that long.

Stephen Brenkley in the Independent has a similar belief that life will go on for the allrounder in the lucrative embrace of the IPL.

The normality, the lack of pretension, the accessibility is why people love Flintoff and why people are prepared to forgive the foibles. Their heads might say that they want single-minded hyper-professionals, but their hearts say it's guys like him in whom they can invest their dreams. Read on in John Stern's blog on the Wisden Cricketer website.

Flintoff's decision could enable him to play in the 2015 World Cup but Paul Weaver in his Guardian blog suggests that the search is on for the new Freddie.

The mystery to most people is that Flintoff's marvellous and wholehearted bowling has rarely been rewarded with a bagful of wickets. Derek Pringle cannot count the number of times he felt that Flintoff deserved five or six wickets yet only had one or two to his name. Was that bad luck or not? The debate continues in his column in the Independent.

Former England captain Mike Atherton is surprised by the timing of Flintoff's announcement, quite opposite to Graham Gooch's thoughts. Richard Bright strings together a few reactions from former players in the Daily Telegraph.

In fact, Atherton predicts a postmodern twist to the allrounder's career story after his announcement in his column in the Times.

Nick Hoult presents a list of five highs and lows for the allrounder in Daily Telegraph.