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The England & Wales Cricket Board are confident Andrew Flintoff will be available for the Ashes finale at The Oval following a positive diagnosis from his knee specialist, Andy Williams. With England facing a must-win encounter at The Oval next week following their humiliating defeat in Leeds, a return to match fitness for Flintoff - in what would be his final Test match appearance before retirement - looms as a massive boost to their prospects of regaining the Ashes.
"The advice received was that the swelling in his knee has significantly eased following the decision by the England management team to rest him from the last Test Match and that subject to further rest and intensive treatment, he will be available for selection for the 5th npower Ashes Test at The Brit Oval," the ECB said in a statement
The assessment tallies with Flintoff's own take on events, because he himself believed he could have taken part in the Headingley debacle. In his absence, England lost by an innings and 80 runs inside two-and-a-half days, but Flintoff later claimed that his participation was vetoed by the captain Andrew Strauss and the coach, Andy Flower. "He told them that he was fit enough to get through," his agent, Chubby Chandler, told The Times, "but they didn't want him."
News of Flintoff's return to fitness will buoy Flower, who on Sunday warned that England could not afford another repeat of Headingley. Flintoff was only informed of his omission on the eve of the match, and the official announcement was held back until an hour before the toss, disrupting team selection. "I think we'd like to know before that," he said. "I don't think we'd want to leave it very late.
"He wanted to play, he was desperate to play but he acknowledged that he wasn't fully fit and he was struggling a bit, so we couldn't play him under those circumstances," said Flower. "If the advice is that he will be fit enough to take part as an allrounder at The Oval, then we will listen to that advice and listen to Fred's information about his own body as well."
A fully fit Flintoff would be the perfect tonic for a beleaguered team, but Flower denied that his fitness battle was having a destabilising effect on the team, as they attempt to mount a comeback in the series, and seal the Ashes for only the second time in the past 20 years. "We've gone whole series waiting on his fitness, so this match is no different," he said. "I would think we'll get some good information back from the specialist, and also some information from him on how he feels, because there's a good chunk of time between now and The Oval, so we'll have a better indication."
Either way, Flower and the England think-tank are already braced for life after Flintoff, and the selection dilemmas inherent therein. "The balance of the side when you haven't got an allrounder at 6 or 7 is always the problem, and it's one we're going to have to face up to because Flintoff is retiring from Test cricket," he said. "That is a problem, because [without him] we seem light either on the batting or the bowling side. If he's not fit for The Oval, we'll have to make a decision on where we settle for our strong point."
England received further positive news on Monday, with James Anderson cleared of a serious hamstring injury. Anderson suffered a slight strain while running between the wickets in the first innings at Headingley, but is expected to play at The Oval.
"As there is no evidence of a significant tear, it is anticipated that (Anderson) will also be available for selection for next week's final Test," the ECB released stated.
Johnson rediscovers himself
He hasn't reached his peak, but Mitchell Johnson has begun to find his form again and believe in himself
August 10, 2009
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Mitchell Johnson is looking people in the eye again off the field. Before the Test in Leeds he avoided returning stares in the city's centre but after his second-innings breakthrough of 5 for 69 he has started to feel comfortable about his bowling and position in the team. It doesn't mean he's cured.
Johnson is not a blokey fast bowler who swears, shouts and bumps shoulders when he meets people. Away from the middle his voice is soft and uncertain, like he's willing himself to believe what he's saying. As he explained the troughs on his Ashes tour he sighed a lot, sucked in deep breaths and paused, not for dramatic effect but to plan the right words. It was easy to feel sorry for him, an unfamiliar emotion for someone who can be so brutal with a cricket ball. Nobody offered him a hug.
The team had celebrated levelling the series the previous night, which slowed his thoughts, but he brightened when talking about his bowling improvements. Then he shifted uneasily back to dealing with the problems that derailed the first half of his tour: losing his accuracy, having his place under threat and a family dispute which became public.
"It's been a bit different than normal," he said. "The first two Tests especially, I felt a bit more pressure than I have in the past. I've started to handle it a lot more now."
Troy Cooley, an assistant coach, helped with the bowling rebuild and Ricky Ponting and Brad Haddin were the most supportive team-mates. Messages arrived from home as he struggled through the opening games and also had to deal with his mum saying his girlfriend had snatched him from the family.
"It's been different for me, having not been in this situation before in personal matters," he said in between some long breaks to reconsider the severity of the past five weeks. He continues to insist his family wasn't the reason for his bowling slide, but the episode had to affect him. When he was running in at Lord's he was thinking about his wrist position, front-arm pull-down and "everything that I could".
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That second Test, when he sprayed 3 for 132 off 21.4 overs, was the lowest point of his trip. "I didn't really know where they were going, to be honest," he said. "I bowled a lot of wide, short balls. That was a pretty tough moment for me. To be copping it from the English crowd, I didn't know how to deal with it at the time, it was the most I've copped it."
He was bowling so badly he thought he could be dropped, a scenario which was unthinkable when he blasted through Graeme Smith and South Africa earlier in the year. "It was in the back of my mind," he said. "Obviously, you're not going well and you start thinking a lot of things, that [being left out] was one of the things that was popping into my mind."
Outside the team hotel he was under threat and suddenly a target for ridicule. During the third game at Edgbaston, where he slowly improved, the England supporters sang "Super Mitchell Johnson" when he got the ball. He kept them quiet in Leeds in the second innings, starting with three wickets on the second afternoon and another two the following day.
When Johnson ended the match by bowling Graham Onions, Ponting, the compassionate captain, ran to the boundary to collect the match ball and presented it to his bowler. "It's great to have that support when you're not at your best," he said. "Now it's great to have a little bit of form and go into the last Test with some confidence." He will enter the game at The Oval on August 20 with 16 wickets at 32.62.
Johnson was used at first-change in Leeds and it allowed him to feel his way into the game instead of being forced to perform straight away. Rather than worrying why the ball wasn't swinging in the first over of the match he was able to field for half an hour while planning ways to embarrass Ian Bell. England's middle order was run through quickly on both occasions and in the second innings he mixed searing short balls with clever inswingers to the right-handers. Bell was a victim on both occasions.
He wants to play the tour game against England Lions at the weekend to continue to fine-tune before The Oval. "I've been on a few tours when it takes me a couple of games to get going," he said. "I'd like to keep the ball rolling."
The next time things go bad he will consult the checklist he made during the games in Cardiff and London and stop reading the papers. He will limit his technical thoughts to the nets and focus on running in and bowling fast. "And keeping puffing my chest out," he said, "getting in the contest with a stare here and there."
That approach doesn't suit the kind Johnson even though he looks like a mid-weight kickboxer when his hair is cropped and cheeks are stubbled. "I don't normally say too much," he said at the end. He was talking about his on-field persona but it reflected his overall personality. By manufacturing this new, part-time character he has eliminated some of his troubles.
Pietersen suffers Achilles setback
August 11, 2009
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Kevin Pietersen has suffered a setback in his recovery from Achilles surgery after being taken to hospital for treatment for an infection in the stitching of his scar tissue, the ECB has confirmed.
Pietersen underwent an operation on his right Achilles tendon after England's victory in the second Test at Lord's. The surgery was conducted by a leading Swedish specialist, who was flown in at the ECB's behest, and an initial estimate was that he would be out of cricket for six weeks.
That may now have to be revised, although the ECB is not at this stage considering the news to be a significant glitch in his recovery plans. He is currently on a drip in a London hospital, where he is believed to be undergoing a course of antibiotics.
The operation, which Pietersen underwent after labouring to twin scores of 32 and 44 in the Lord's Test in July, involved a small incision and trimming of the blood vessels and nerves around the inflamed tendon and was considered, in a statement from Nick Peirce, the ECB's chief medical officer, to have been routine.
"Kevin will look to undertake a comprehensive rehabilitation programme to ensure there is no risk of recurrence," said Peirce at the time. "This is expected to be approximately six weeks but will be taken at an appropriate pace following constant review."
Pietersen was never in contention to be fit for the remainder of the Australia tour, although the ECB currently remain optimistic that he will be fit for the tour of South Africa which gets underway in October, although he may yet be forced to miss the Champions Trophy section of that trip.
In Pietersen's absence, England's middle order has struggled to match his authoritative style of batting, and at Headingley this week, Nos 3, 4 and 5 - Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood - mustered 16 runs for six dismissals, the lowest combined tally in Test history.
"I hate missing matches for England and especially during an Ashes summer but now that the decision has been made to undergo surgery I'm confident I can return to the England team injury-free following a course of rehabilitation," said Pietersen at the time of his injury.
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