Jul 07 2009
The Ashes 2009: Lee out of first Test as Flintoff clones strike again
Just hours before the first Ashes Test at Sophia Garden, Cardiff, Australia have been dealt a major blow with the news that pace bowling, reverse swinging stalwart Brett Lee is to miss the first, and possibly the second, match of the series due to injury.
The cause? Why, the Flintoff clones of course. Yes, three of them are still on the run and leaving a trail of mayhem wherever they go. The ECB would hate to admit it, but it seems the project to create a team of eleven Freddie Flintoffs has been something of a failure, at least from a technical point of view.
From a biased English perspective, however, it is a major boost to a team that hasn’t managed to capture the Ashes — or achieve a great deal of success against any other team, for that matter — since their historic win in 2005. That victory was aided greatly by a “freak” injury to star bowler Glenn McGrath, who, during warm up, stumbled on a “randomly” placed ball on the outfield.
It’s now known that mischievous England cricket chiefs planted the errant ball along with numerous others around the pitch in hopes they would catch at least one Aussie player unawares. They couldn’t believe their luck when they managed to collar one of Australia’s most experienced bowlers, and literally spat their Pimms all over their newly-ironed dinner jackets.
This time it round it appears their old tricks have succeeded once more, much to the dismay of the Australia touring party. Sadly, none of them were available for comment as they were all round Andrew Symonds’s flat getting hammered at the time.
Reports that some of the missing Freds were also at the same party are as yet unconfirmed, though highly likely.
