Flintoff shrugs off illness scare

Andrew Flintoff shrugged off his latest health scare by turning up to training at Windward CC in Barbados.

An England spokesman quashed fears that he had glandular fever, saying that a test came back negative. "He has had a chest infection for the last ten days," the spokesman said. "He is fine." His fellow Andrew, Strauss, bruised his left leg playing volleyball but he was also fit enough to train.

The news of the test will come as a relief for both England and Flintoff, who has had his share of troubles at this tournament - with a twisted ankle, an illness last month - and some of his own making. Nevertheless, he has played in all of England's matches (apart from being dropped against Canada) although he is averaging just 14.40 with the bat.

England's next match is on Tuesday, where they face South Africa in a crunch encounter. Kevin Pietersen is hoping that his feud with Graeme Smith won't get in the way of the importance of the match as a whole. As Pietersen put it: "Tuesday is do or die for England. It's not Kevin Pietersen v Graeme Smith. We won't be having a beer together afterwards. Neither of us have a problem with that. We will both be giving everything to come out on top -let's leave it at that."