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Andrew ‘Freddie Flintoff to Retire from Test Cricket…

July 15, 2009 By Carl Harris

Its Andrew FlintOFF

Andrew Flintoff has announced he will retire from Test cricket at the end of this summer’s Ashes series.The 31-year-old has accepted defeat in his long-running battle against injuries and said: “My body has told me it’s time to stop.”

The man-of-the-series during England’s 2005 Ashes success, made his announcement today after struggling to overcome a succession of injuries during the last four years.

He has had four ankle operations and is battling to be fit for Thursday’s second Test at Lord’s but will first hold a press conference there at 12.30pm today.

In the first Test in Cardiff, Flintoff suffered a recurrence of a right knee injury, which follows an operation earlier this year to cure a degenerative problem in the joint which flared up during his stint playing in the Indian Premier League.

That latest injury setback persuaded Flintoff that after 75 Tests for England, during which time he claimed 212 wickets and scored 3,658 runs including five centuries, the time was right to end his Test career and concentrate on playing international cricket at one-day and Twenty20 level.

Flintoff says;

“My body has told me it’s time to stop,” he told Press Association Sport. “I’ve been through four ankle operations, I had knee surgery just a couple of months ago and had three jabs in my knee on Monday just to get me right for this Test so I took that as my body telling me that I can’t cope with the rigours of Test cricket. Since 2005 I’ve done two years when I’ve done nothing but rehab from one injury or another. Two of the last four years I’ve spent just in rehabilitation and I just can’t keep doing it for myself, my own sanity, my family and also for the team -because they need to move on as well. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a while and I think this last problem I’ve had with my knee has confirmed to me that the time is now right. For the next four Test matches I’ll do everything I need to do to get on a cricket field and I’m desperate to make my mark. I want to finish playing for England on a high and if you look at the fixtures going forward, the way my body is suggests I won’t be able to get through that.”

The second test starts at Lords on Thursday.(Read Lee Keys Second Test Preview)
This is how good Flintoff was at hos peak, in the 2005 Ashes Series- the over of the series…

How we could do with that this summer!

“I’ve chatted to Andrew Strauss and he is very supportive but I will make my decision on whether I will be fit enough to play in the Test match and not because I want to play one last Test for England at Lord’s,” he added.

Lets hope this inspires England.

Here’s more Freddie Flintoff from Youtube, from that 2005 Ashes Series….

He was good wasn’t he?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Andrew Flintoff, Cricket, Lords, The Ashes

The Ashes- Second Test Previewed by Lee Keys

July 14, 2009 By Barry Robson

Lee Keys Previews the second test between England and Australia on Thursday at Lords…

Ponting hoping for better at Lords..

Onwards to the second test at Lords, a ground where England have failed to beat the Aussies since 1934. England were not up the standard required in Cardiff to veer look like causing the visitors problems and I don’t think the queue’s will be too long for the 4/1 about an England victory.

Lords has been a batting paradise of late but it must be worth pointing out that when there is cloud cover the ball is very receptive to swing bowling there so be careful about siding with the draw around the 6/5 mark.

The Aussies must be a good bet then surely???

Well of the three possible outcomes I would favour an Aussie victory but it has to be disconcerting that at no stage did James Anderson and Monty Panesar look in trouble when blocking out the Aussie attack. I mean could you see those two holding out against the likes of Shane Warne and Glen Mcgrath for the best part of seventy two balls???

If you look at England’s second innings it is safe to say that two of our key batsmen in Pietersen and Bopara were both out in bizarre circumstances. KP was clearly thinking about his lovely missus when watching the ball smash into his off stump, a shot which is amongst the strangest and worst shots I have ever seen played at test level. While poor Ravi Bopara was given an awful LBW decision.

The Aussie attack despite being better than our own was still short of what is required under normal circumstances to bowl a side out twice. I don’t think they offer anything out of the ordinary and for that reason I wouldn’t be rushing to take the 13/8 on offer.

So despite my epic failure to come up with some sort of value for an outright bet in the second test due to varying negatives for each of the three outcomes I have found a little gem in one of the lesser known markets.

You can back Australia at 10/11 with Boylesports to have the highest opening partnership. This is some serious value given that the convicts opening partnerships has been higher than England’s in five out of the last six innings, with the other one tied.

Australia’s openers have scored 415 runs at an average of 69.17 before a wicket is lost in the last six innings.

England’s openers have scored 140 runs at an average of 23.33 before a wicket is lost in the last six innings.

Even after the stats you only have to look at the first test. Andrew Strauss hates left hand swing bowlers (Zaheer Khan has got him five times in the last five matches) as Mitchell Johnson added to his woes by getting him out in the first innings. Then there’s Alistair Cook, who seems to be completely out of sorts especially judging by his posture when getting out LBW in the second innings. He was all over the place, with his head nowhere near in line with the ball.

The Aussies may have a weakness in Phillip Hughes but his attacking nature usually means there have been a good few runs on the board before he gets out to one of his unorthodox and unnecessary shots.

Simon Katich proved why I wanted to get on the right side of him in the runs market with a superlative century in the last test and I see no reason why his new found technique will desert him at Lords.

This is a very good value bet, the stats back it up and what I saw visually in the first test backs it up – GET ON.

4pts Australia opening partnership to be higher than England’s @ 10/11 Boylesports.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Australia, Cricket Betting Tips, England, Lords, The Ashes 2009

England v West Indies, First Test

May 6, 2009 By Carl Harris

Would You Really Back England at 8/11 ?

Let me start by saying that I am a cricket fan, but I do not regularly bet on Cricket and this is not advice that comes with the same expertese as the racing and football advice.

The first thing to do is to look at the weather forecast and if it looks like rain back the draw. It looks like it will be dry and there should be no long breaks for rain, so we can look at the match without any weather related factors, assuming the Met Office are correct of course!

The First test starts on Wednesday (for the first time, its usually Thursday) at Lords and is live on Sky Sports. This is a 2 match series, Sri Lanka were originally pencilled in as tourists, only to withdraw owing to the number of players who had committed to playing in this year’s Indian Premier League.

England are reportedly ready for the West Indies, as you can see from this ITN Video piece below that is on YouTube.

England are the hot favourites to win; the best prices are

England- 8/11 -Boyle Sports

West Indies- 11/2- Blue Square

Draw – 9/4 -Betfred

So what shall we do? Well lets look at a few stats and factors before reaching our verdict. Firstly there are doubts surrounding the readiness of both teams. Neither coach is particularly happy with the preparations.

The West Indies’ Coach is non-too pleased with Gayle’s late arrival and England coach Andy Flower thinks that the 3 English lads who played in the Indian IPL are “under prepared”, particularly Paul Collingwood who never played and was teh best paid waiter in the world, being on drink duty rather than batting.

Not a good start. Then there is all the shenanigans with Pieterson. He strikes me as a moody and problematic character. Strauss is captain but was not deemed good enough to be in the 20/20 squad, never mind be captain.

England are without Flintoff. Andrew Flintoff has already been ruled out of the whole of the series after picking up a knee injury playing for the Chennai Super Kings. I must have been carrying his wallet!

Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara have all missed the opening stages of the domestic county season and when you add to the fact that England’s last tour was of the West Indies, and they lost that 8/11 does not look so appealing!

The Stats…

They are interesting and would not have you rushing to lump on England either. At Lords the last six Tests have been drawn – as well as England’s failure to impose themselves anywhere of late is a worry.

England have now gone 14 Test series without winning the opening match and also failed to bowl out opponents India or the West Indies in any of their winter Test Matches.

Are the Alarm bells ringing yet?

West Indies have been less than inspiring in their warm-up games, but Test Cricket is always different. The squads are;

England (from): Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior (wkt), Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, James Anderson, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar.

West Indies (from): Chris Gayle (capt), Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Denesh Ramdin (wkt), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brendan Nash, Dave Bernard, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Sulieman Benn, Lionel Baker, Narsingh Deonarine, Nelon Pascal, Andrew Richardson, Dale Richards.

Racing Diary View…

This is our view rather than firm advice..not being cricket experts… but I am going to LAY ENGLAND at those odds. The Draw and the West Indies will do me at those really short prices.

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