The elephant in the room

On February 7th, I had briefly talked about the mystique of Andrew Flintoff. A man whose legend far exceeds his actual deeds on the field.

It turns out that I am not the only one who feels this way. A few days later, I came across this article by Lawrence Booth of The Guardian. He uses some numbers that are nitpicky (With him, England win less than 39% of their matches and lose 33%. Without him, they win 45% and lose 32%.) but the overall message is the same.

The question is whether anyone has the cojones to challenge him about what he brings to the team. Or indeed the inclination. It may suit everyone to buy into the myth that without him England are a lesser side. But it would suit England better in the long term if they realise that it is nearly four years since they got the best out of Flintoff.