Flintoff needs team support - Bell
Ian Bell has called on the England team to support Andrew Flintoff during the Ashes series so that his workload doesn't become too much
Cricinfo staff
26-Sep-2006
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But Bell believes that Flintoff will lead from the front and take the challenges in his stride, although does concede that he can't do it all on his own.
"Even without his captaincy, Freddie is a leader in whatever he does, whether it be batting, bowling or fielding," he told the Press Association. "It will be great to have him back on the park and great to have him lead us out there [in Australia].
"But we are going to have to support him because it is a hell of a long winter for all of us especially with Freddie batting, bowling, fielding and captaining the side against the number one team in the world in Australia.
"It is going to be a long winter for him so we all need to be with him and making sure he is not doing too much. That is probably a danger. The last thing you want is for Freddie to be burnt out. It's a good thing in a way we've still got people there like Straussy [Andrew Strauss] and Tresco [Marcus Trescothick] around. These guys can talk to him and make sure he doesn't do too much.
When Flintoff led England in the Test series against Sri Lanka he bowled 51 overs in the second innings of the Lord's Test. Those in favour of having Strauss as captain said he would have been able to manage Flintoff's workload better than the man himself.
"With Freddie being captain, he'll want to do things from the front and makes sure everything is done properly and sometimes he does too much himself," Bell said. "He needs to have that support from everyone in the team to say: 'Freddie, you just look after yourself a bit more rather than doing too much'.
"It's great for us to have Freddie but we need to be aware he is a key player for us for the whole winter and we need him all the way through."