Flintoff to Announce Retirement

[Furball]

**** sake, worst thread, same usual dire suspects at it with nothing done.

If you want to rag on our greatest cricketer of the last 10 years, piss off and do it in the appropriate thread.

I'd love to see the reaction of the Sachin fanboys (one in particular who's been at it in this thread) if myself and GIMH tried to piss on his retirement parade.

 

[GIMH]

Cue people missing the point about how freddie isn't on sachin's level

 

[PhoenixFire]

**** sake, worst thread, same usual dire suspects at it with nothing done.

If you want to rag on our greatest cricketer of the last 10 years, piss off and do it in the appropriate thread.

I'd love to see the reaction of the Sachin fanboys (one in particular who's been at it in this thread) if myself and GIMH tried to piss on his retirement parade.

Not much more to be said that hasn't already.

His value to the team can't be measured in stats alone, someone like him has a massive impact on lifting the whole team and giving them confidence, and I know it sounds very cliched, but he was definitely one of those players who had the x-factor.

Certainly a shame that his career was forshortened by injuries, who knows what further heights he might have achieved if he had been fit for a majority of his career.

 

[GIMH]

If cricket was as popular as football in this country, fred would be as revered here as sachin is in India.

 

[Shifter]

Sachin wouldn't be revered in India if he hadn't been the great batsman that he is. Flintoff was good not great. I don't know what it says about English cricket, or maybe just English cricket fans if Flintoff is considered the best cricketer produced there in the last decade.

I'm also tired of the injury excuses. There are a number of players who have had countless injury setbacks but still have excellent stats. The flintoff x-factor talk is also tiring. Isn't there a stat that since his last return from injury England had won more matches without him than with him? Though admittedly that doesn't tell the story of the strength of the opposition when he was and wasn't playing.

I seriously doubt he would get nearly as much publicity if he weren't English and wasn't part the team that won back the Ashes after so long.

 

[Pothas]

**** sake, worst thread, same usual dire suspects at it with nothing done.

Yeah I agree, the football thread really is dire.

 

[GIMH]

Cue people missing the point about how freddie isn't on sachin's level

...

Sachin wouldn't be revered in India if he hadn't been the great batsman that he is. Flintoff was good not great. I don't know what it says about English cricket, or maybe just English cricket fans if Flintoff is considered the best cricketer produced there in the last decade.

I'm also tired of the injury excuses. There are a number of players who have had countless injury setbacks but still have excellent stats. The flintoff x-factor talk is also tiring. Isn't there a stat that since his last return from injury England had won more matches without him than with him? Though admittedly that doesn't tell the story of the strength of the opposition when he was and wasn't playing.

I seriously doubt he would get nearly as much publicity if he weren't English and wasn't part the team that won back the Ashes after so long.

 

[Shifter]

Then what is the point exactly? That he is to the English what Sachin is to the Indians? OK, so what? The Indians have a reason to celebrate Sachins career. The English can only hold onto his 2-3 glory years and ignore the mediocrity of the rest of his career.

 

[Sir Alex]

Sachin wouldn't be revered in India if he hadn't been the great batsman that he is. Flintoff was good not great. I don't know what it says about English cricket, or maybe just English cricket fans if Flintoff is considered the best cricketer produced there in the last decade.

I'm also tired of the injury excuses. There are a number of players who have had countless injury setbacks but still have excellent stats. The flintoff x-factor talk is also tiring. Isn't there a stat that since his last return from injury England had won more matches without him than with him? Though admittedly that doesn't tell the story of the strength of the opposition when he was and wasn't playing.

I seriously doubt he would get nearly as much publicity if he weren't English and wasn't part the team that won back the Ashes after so long.

Fred was perhaps the most influential guy in increasingn the self belief of the pathetically mediocre England of the nineties into a world beating unit. His legacy is intact in that regardless of what he achieved or not numbers wise.

No need to bring Sachin here,

Look at Trumper, Vishy, etc, their stats never really capture their aura, or their value to the team and spectators. Hell, I started watching English cricket closely only due to him, for here was one guy whom I can be assured of value for investment, by his effort alone.

I think I've seen such traits to a lesser degree only in Shane Watson of late. He may be a dick but no doubts on his sincerity and commitment to his team.

We all have the hots for Atlases in a weak team. Fred was that for a big part of his best times.

 

[Jono]

To the Freddy fans on CW, I apologise for my joke earlier in this thread that Freddy fanboys are going through what Sachin fanboys have gone through. I didn't think some people would actually come into his retirement thread and then debate the merits of Sachin vs. Freddy

There is a common courtesy on CW, whereby no matter what you think of a player, you don't debate their cricketing merits in retirement threads guys. You can debate the merits of their retirement (i.e. too late, they've actually been pushed etc.) but criticizing a player in a retirement thread is a dog act.

Happened to Murali, now Freddy. Can't remember if Warne got called a druggy in his or his Indian record came up.

There are other threads for this discussion

 

[Flem274*]

Think I've posted already, but sad to see the big fella go. Was a lot of fun, and I'm gutted we didn't get to see him head to head with Kallis, Cairns, Watson and Oram enough.

 

[GIMH]

To the Freddy fans on CW, I apologise for my joke earlier in this thread that Freddy fanboys are going through what Sachin fanboys have gone through. I didn't think some people would actually come into his retirement thread and then debate the merits of Sachin vs. Freddy

There is a common courtesy on CW, whereby no matter what you think of a player, you don't debate their cricketing merits in retirement threads guys. You can debate the merits of their retirement (i.e. too late, they've actually been pushed etc.) but criticizing a player in a retirement thread is a dog act.

Happened to Murali, now Freddy. Can't remember if Warne got called a druggy in his or his Indian record came up.

There are other threads for this discussion

In conclusion, you're a ****

 

[Matt79]

One of the players I've most admired/feared and at times hated. ("you've got a busted knee you **** - stop bowling so well and fall over already!!!" - Matt79, 2009) Game is certainly richer for having had him in it, and poorer now that time and physically inevitably has caught up with him. Should, and hopefully will, always be a hero within English cricket for what he did for them.

 

[PhoenixFire]

There is a common courtesy on CW, whereby no matter what you think of a player, you don't debate their cricketing merits in retirement threads guys. You can debate the merits of their retirement (i.e. too late, they've actually been pushed etc.) but criticizing a player in a retirement thread is a dog act.

Haha but I swear people do it anyway in basically every retirement thread.

 

[aussie]

My favourite Flintoff moment/performances outside of the Ashes 05 stuff would be:

- 80odd not out vs PAK in PAK 2000. This was the innings that convinced me from early that he would be a top all-rounder eventually.

- Taking of his shirt @ Mumbai 2002, when ENG levelled that ODI series. Legendary.

- His performances in IND 06. I loved the way he curbed his natural attacking instincts with the bat & played the spinners, since as most would know his batting vs spin before was disgraceful. In some ways i rate his all-rounder series their higher than the 2005 Ashes.

 

[Goughy]

I thought this was the best place to add this little story which I think shows the class of the man separate to anything that happened on the cricket field.

I played cricket on Sun and in the bar afterwards I had a drink with an English guy. He told a tale about a flight to the States.

He was in business class sat very near Flintoff, Rachael (who was heavily pregnant with their 3rd child) and their 2 boys. The boys were playing up and the Flintoffs were apologising. Orlando is supposedly a pain of an airport and transfering required collecting and rechecking bags. The guy I was drinking with said he offered to help Flintoff by having Rachael sit down and he would take 1 child, Andrew the other, and together they would collect and then re-check the mountain of bags and suitcases. It wasnt a huge effort but it made the life of the Flintoffs easier during a mundane but stressful time. Flintoff asked for his business card and the guy I was sharing a pint with thought nothing more of it. Then 1 day, about a month later, his secretary brought a package into the office and inside was a signed Woodworm bat with a note that read "Thank you for all the help, Andrew Flintoff."

From the help given, to the gift, there is nothing dramatic about the story but I think they say a lot about helping others with the little things and about Flintoff as a man.

 

[Dissector]

Nice story and a very classy gesture.

 

[fredfertang]

A family trait - I am given to understand, by a bloke who has a whole collection of vicious reptiles in his, that there are no crocodiles in his old man's pockets

 

[Teja.]

Very nice gesture.

 

[GIMH]

Absolute legend, a true gent.