Dubai: Former England allrounder Andrew Flintoff feels that England have come out of the transitional phase much stronger than the Australians.
"England and Australia are totally different sides now after both went through a transitional stage and I think England has gone a bit further ahead. They are strong enough to beat the Australians in the Ashes series and can take twenty wickets on Australian wickets. It is our chance to do it again," remarked Flintoff to Gulf News after providing tips to young boys and girls from Public Schools at the Al Mizhar Sports Hall yesterday.
Thirty-two-year-old Flintoff announced his retirement from all forms of the game last week due to a knee injury. He had played pivotal roles in England's Ashes victories. When asked how tough it will be to miss the Ashes, Flintoff said: "It is not really about missing the Ashes because I had retired from Test cricket last year. I knew that Ashes was not a possibility and I had come to terms with it. What is hard for me is to miss playing in the next World Cup and Twenty20 cricket because I thought I will be able to play One-day and Twenty20 cricket for two to three years.
"However, overall I think I had a good run and I cannot complain. All the injuries I had are from the cricket field and the last injury beat me." Does he feel that injuries are increasing because of excessive cricket? "It is hard to say that injuries are due to excessive cricket. We are in a very fortunate position to be able to play cricket every day and one thing that we might see is that the careers may get shorter."
When asked whether he has plans to take up coaching, Flintoff said: "I have some offers to do television work, which I quite fancy. I have never seen myself as a coach but I would like to be involved with Lancashire in some capacity. I cannot see myself as a coach day in and day out. I would like to help cricketers more as a voluntary work than as a permanent coach."
Spot-fixing scandal
Flintoff expressed his disappointment over the spot-fixing scandal that has hit the game.
"I have always believed that everything will only be accusation till all facts are presented. It was unfortunate to see a lot of people coming to different conclusions. Without proper evidence it is wrong to jump to conclusions," he said.
Reaching out
Andrew Flintoff yesterday officially introduced cricket into the curriculum of public schools as part of the initiative of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The initiative aims to promote physical education and an active lifestyle amongst school children. After the launch, Flintoff said: "The population of Dubai is made up of expatriates from India and Pakistan who are cricket lovers. It was great to see national kids too enjoying the game though they may have probably been seeing cricket for the first time today. So [the] broader [audience] cricket can reach, the better it will be for the game."
Ahmad Abdul Rahman, the project manager of the initiative said: "We wanted a great cricketer like Flintoff to inspire them. It is part of our programme to induce children into sports which they haven't played and get them interested."
