Three games experience? That's really not going to make any difference by the time the 2009 Ashes come along. My problem with all this discussion (as I showed with Gooch's career and has been talked about in Tom Graveney's recall at 40 odd, where he went on and averaged 45 for five years) is that we have no idea when someone's career is over. Some players could be like Atherton and Holding in that their career is pretty much over by 33. If this is the case for Flintoff (then we should surely never reslect him - what the point, he's at the end of his career). Others go on well into their 40s. Nobody knows whether Ramprakash is at the end of his career. He is scoring more runs than ever (even in county cricket - he never averaged 100 in any of his previous seasons, let alone twice on the trot). Yes, he has failed in the past. But answer me one question. How many consecutive test matches did he get in his 52 test failure. I'm sure most English players would have failed under these circumstances. I seem to remember he was wheeled out everytime we played the West Indies. Did everyone else score heavily in these test matches? The only time I remember him playing regular test matches for a good spell was after during 1997-98 where he ended up scoring 1000 runs at 48 (this included tours to WI and Australia). It wasn't long after this that England were dropping him again (I seem to remember he didn't tour SA in 99 because Fletcher decided to take Gavin Hamilton and Chris Adams) and then asked him to open the innings against Ambrose and Walsh in 2000.

No other England player has EVER been treated so shabbily. And that is a fact. He was once picked to replace an injured player at the eleventh hour only because he was playing county cricket in London and could get to the test match (also in London) on time - and he was told this. What type of message was this giving him.