England without Freddie..are we hopeless ?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Pick a side to face SA WITHOUT Mr Flintoff and reasons why.

Is it still competative or do we start cloning him now ?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Here's mine

Strauss
Tresco
Butch
Vaughan
Bell
Thorpe
Jones
Caddick (if in form if not Anderson)
Hoggard
Giles
Harmo

Now can we beat SA with that side ?

Not unless we have big contributions form anderson and everyone bats very well. And our fielding will have to be worked on. Butch and thorpe to put glue on their hands !

[Zainub]

Hopeless is one of my least favorite words RBLC, Sherry aka Navoj Singh Sidhu used to say "Hope is invincible and it can conquer the imposible" ...I like "hope" a way lot better. Why , just precisely why do you have to comtemplate on such a hypothetical question, especially since Freddie has been doing all he can to keep him self fit over off season, he's even training as a boxer for goodness sakes. God willing he'll be fit, and will do a good job for England. I can see England can compete without him too though, sure they'll miss but to be fair to the England team, which side wouldn't miss a player like him? Little harsh I would say to tag England as a one-man or two man team after how they have been performing of later.

[Occasional Fan]

Presumably, RBLC, we are not going to learn anything about Andrew Caddick in the next three weeks, so - him or Anderson, based on what we know now?

Addressing your question directly, Flintoff's absence would leave a bit of a hole, wouldn't it? But can I really believe that one person is the difference between a prospective winning side and a prospective losing side? No, sir. At least, probably not. Well, hopefully not ... Erm! FRED - STAY WELL, MATE!

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

I'm ruffling a few feathers today ! We've more or less agreed freddie is one of our top bowlers, and I beleive he averages 50 with the bat over the past 12 months ( a guess !) and is our premier slip fielder 9imagine 4 "butchers" in the slips!).

Now normally to encompass those roles you'd normally have 3 players -mcgrath, ponting lehamn (sure he's in the aussies slips!) for example. So if mcgrath is injured you bring in lee, ponting injured you bring in Katich and shuffle your slips around. Tresco apart, our slips couldnt catch cold, anderson is too inconsistant (i've no idea who we would bring in if we used 5 bowelrs - martin Bicknell anyone ?!?!). Batting wise we'd cope I'm sure but bowling ? Doubt it. Slip catching ? really doubt it. English talisman ? Can't think of any takers.

[Ernest]

Well to put it in a blunt way, England will not win the Ashes without Freddie.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

The jurys still out on us winning with him ern . What about SA ?

[Maranello]

This is an interesting hypothetical discussion... but before we get too metaphysical and confuse me totally, let's think of real events. Would England have won 6 of the 7 Tests this summer without Freddie? Would we have won in the Windies?

And if so... how?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Thats a good start. He took his first 5fer out there which i think set up a win the 2nd test and scorea ton in the 3rd or 4th after coming in at 4 for not alot batted with the tail sensibly. Proably took a few catches too. Hopefully a stat-miester can elaborate.

[Maranello]

Stat-miester? You mean Ern?