Flintoff's sacking as vice-captain following his drinking episode following the loss to New Zealand in the first match has come at the wrong time for me. Even if one assumes that this has been on for a long time and that Flintoff has been given sufficient warnings, I don't think a big stage like the World cup is a place to publicly declare these things and punish the erring player. What more, he was the vice-captain of a team where the fitness of the captain is rather iffy (just as I write this, Vaughan tipped over a pot hole and injured himself again, though we are made to believe its not serious).
Just play this scenario out: Vaughan is injured and ruled out of a game, Flintoff is now sacked and the only other person who has led the team is Strauss and he is currently struggling to find a place in the team. So, who will lead the team? Presumably, it will go to Collingwood but definitely its not an ideal situation to be in. And it is for this reason that I think sacking of Flintoff is downright stupid. If England really wanted to get down hard on his drinking problems, they should have just suspended him for an inconsequential game and ended it there. It will be interesting to see now if he can recover from the public embarrassment and concentrate on the task at hand in England's crucial game against Kenya.
Finally, I think the whole issue also reflects Michael Vaughan's insecurity. It is no secret that Vaughan loves his captaincy role. So did Vaughan feel threatened by Flintoff's performance as captain and hence was looking for an opportunity to get rid of the threat? Some reports say that the publicity provided to the issue effectively rules out Flintoff's captaincy chances in future. If that is indeed the case, maybe Vaughan can now rest easy :).
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1 comment:
to the last paragraph, yes.
vaughan appears to 'have it in for' freddie and is certainly threatened by his status in the team.
It's vaughan, imo, that needs time out from the no1 team.
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