Without a doubt, Andrew Flintoff is the gifted most Cricketer of the current cricketing world. He is the current best all rounder Cricketer and certainly one of the best al rounder of all times along side Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and so on. He plays for the English Cricket Team and recently retired from the longer version of the game after winning the prestigious Ashes this summer. But, at the same time he has decided to carry on playing in the shorter version of the game for his country and as a freelance Cricketer for different clubs all around the Cricketing world. A few major facts about this Cricketing great are listed below:

1. The great Andrew Flintoff also known as “Freddy” was born on 6^th December, 1977 in the Preston Langshire County, after the win in the Ashes in the year 2005 he well established himself as the greatest current English player scoring 402 runs with the bat and taking 24 scalps.

2. Looking back at the past, in the year 2001 he requested to get transferred to the Rod Marsh’s England Cricket Board academy. In the year of 2002 he went through a hernia operation. After successful completion of this operation he finally came to thick of things and played straight into the World Cup 2003 where he assumed the centre stage.

3. After assisting England in becoming the winners in South Africa by defeating them by a 2-1 margin, he then had to deal with some other medical problems, he returned home with a view to recuperate and return in better shape.

4. After he made a second come back he aided England in managing a meagre 2 run victory over Australia in one of the best and enthralling Tests of all time.

5. In the year 2007 he again underwent a third ankle surgery and a lot of the people wondered whether he could ever make a return. The following June he came back with a bang and played against the mighty South Africans.

6. When Andrew Flintoff was hailed as the Man of the Year, with 4-0 series win over the South Africans he was in the best of his forms in turning out the very best.

7. Confirming his ability and popularity as one of the giants in the current Cricketing world, he was signed by an IPL team (CSK) offering a $1.55 million annual contract.

With Andrew Flintoff retiring from the Test Cricket after the Ashes ’09 win and refusing to sign the special yearly contract offered by ECB, it’s highly unlikely to watch him in the thick of the scenes in the international circuit. But, his presence would certainly be felt all around the world in the domestic circuit with his current decision of playing as a freelance cricketer.

After the overwhelming response that the T20 format of the game has received, there has been a lot of discussions of late suggesting that there the future of Test Cricket is in grave danger. These dangers seem to be triggered by a simple combo of the increasing popularity enjoyed by the shortest form of the game i.e. Twenty-20 cricket and the decreasing no. of crowds coming to watch Test Matches in few parts of the cricketing world.

So let’s have a glance at some of these recently evolved issues and see what’s actually going on. One key point to take note of is that more and more money is being invested into the gentleman’s game of Cricket in India where Cricket is equivalent to religion, multiplying the significance of this cricketing country by miles. It’s easily also the cricketing nation that has the highest number of cricket fans all over the globe.

All these things are implying a big impact on the game of Cricket as a whole. The overwhelming response received by the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been able to brought exciting matches to a comparatively large, global audience. It’s also crystal clear that the crowd levels in the Test Matches played in India looks to be on the much lower side than those for the fast paced IPL matches and 50 over from of the game. The matter of concern is though does this really signify the problems ahead?

In England where Cricket was first played, domestic T20 matches get more attendance than the 4 day County Championship matches. Quite same picture can be observed in other major Cricketing nations of the world.

So, do all these negatives imply that it’s the end of the age old Test Match cricket? It looks tough to believe that it could actually be, although many countries may put more importance on specific forms of the game. Risk factor associated with it can never be neglected, but as a matter of fact it might be best if we all just accept that the latest form of the game offers newer opportunities and aids in bringing more crowd into the game from more parts of the world.

Anything that render cricket into a more popular sport has to be an awesome thing for the game. One very important group of people in all of this will certainly be the players. As long as they continue preferring Test cricket to be the ultimate test field, it appears a certainty that this age old form of the gentleman’s game will survive. Give some strong support to your favorite team by creating baseball pins and giveaway to your friends and fans.

Without a doubt, Andrew Flintoff is the gifted most Cricketer of the current cricketing world. He is the current best all rounder Cricketer and certainly one of the best al rounder of all times along side Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and so on. He plays for the English Cricket Team and recently retired from the longer version of the game after winning the prestigious Ashes this summer. But, at the same time he has decided to carry on playing in the shorter version of the game for his country and as a freelance Cricketer for different clubs all around the Cricketing world. A few major facts about this Cricketing great are listed below:

1. The great Andrew Flintoff also known as “Freddy” was born on 6th December, 1977 in the Preston Langshire County, after the win in the Ashes in the year 2005 he well established himself as the greatest current English player scoring 402 runs with the bat and taking 24 scalps.

2. Looking back at the past, in the year 2001 he requested to get transferred to the Rod Marsh’s England Cricket Board academy. In the year of 2002 he went through a hernia operation. After successful completion of this operation he finally came to thick of things and played straight into the World Cup 2003 where he assumed the centre stage.

3. After assisting England in becoming the winners in South Africa by defeating them by a 2-1 margin, he then had to deal with some other medical problems, he returned home with a view to recuperate and return in better shape.

4. After he made a second come back he aided England in managing a meagre 2 run victory over Australia in one of the best and enthralling Tests of all time.

5. In the year 2007 he again underwent a third ankle surgery and a lot of the people wondered whether he could ever make a return. The following June he came back with a bang and played against the mighty South Africans.

6. When Andrew Flintoff was hailed as the Man of the Year, with 4-0 series win over the South Africans he was in the best of his forms in turning out the very best.

7. Confirming his ability and popularity as one of the giants in the current Cricketing world, he was signed by an IPL team (CSK) offering a $1.55 million annual contract.

With Andrew Flintoff retiring from the Test Cricket after the Ashes ’09 win and refusing to sign the special yearly contract offered by ECB, it’s highly unlikely to watch him in the thick of the scenes in the international circuit. But, his presence would certainly be felt all around the world in the domestic circuit with his current decision of playing as a freelance cricketer.