Flintoff tires of the fever

Now we know that cricketers may never take to celebrity the way footballers have done so. Barely a month on from leading his country to an historic Ashes triumph - among the greatest the game has seen - and becoming cricket's biggest celebrity (with due respect to Kevin Pietersen), Andrew Flintoff has expressed a desire to return to the anonymity that is the cricketer's usual habitat.

Flintoff, who is in Sydney for the ICC Awards as well as the Super Series Test later this week, told reporters he was tired of the unrelenting attention from the media and the public. "I would like to go back to not being recognised to be honest."

Flintoff admitted he found it difficult to adjust to photographers camping outside his house and being recognised everywhere he went. "It's been quite a bizarre few weeks. I am looking forward to the day it dies down a bit. Maybe I'll have to start playing poorly, then nobody will be interested."

Australia, in particular, has taken warmly to Flintoff. "All the feedback I have had in the street has been positive and the Australian public have been great."

Flintoff has been nominated for the ICC's Player of the Year as well as the One-Day Player of the Year awards, and although he said the nominations were an honour, he was typically self-effacing about it. "I'm not holding my breath. All the England players have played a part in the team's success over the last two years and we have all done something to enhance the side. That is more important than personal awards."

But Flintoff's pleas for anonymity are likely to go unheeded if, as reports suggest, he is keen to pursue his other passion - singing - when he returns to England.

Flintoff has acquired the services of a singing coach; Jon Christos, an emerging opera star, was approached by Flintoff after a charity ball in Manchester a few weeks ago. Christos has given Flintoff lessons and has been impressed by him. There are even, apparently, murmurs of a Flintoff single before Christmas.

Christos told The Sunday Telegraph, "He actually came up to me to congratulate me on my performance and we got chatting. We're both Manchester City footy fans and we just got on. I told him it should be me congratulating him on his success in winning the Ashes, but he said he would trade it all in to do what I do.

"I told him, `You're the hero of the country right now - why would you want to do that?' But he's very passionate about singing, so I said, `Let's get together'. He's a big karaoke man and he loves crooning."

The pair will meet in Christos's studio after Flintoff returns from Australia. Christos added, "He's going to come over as soon as he gets back and by that time, I will have prepared him a couple of tracks and we'll get to work."

What Flintoff is likely to record, however, the opera singer would not reveal. The cricketer is known to be an avid Elvis Presley fan, although Christos quashed any ideas that Flintoff would be cultivating sideburns and donning a spangly, garish jumpsuit for the project.

"I promised Fred I would not give away what we're doing. It's not Elvis. He had a couple of tracks in mind. All I can say is that they'll have a Rat Pack feel."