Freelance Freddie Flintoff?
When the ECB offered Andrew Flintoff an incremental contract, as opposed to a full one, did they expect it to be returned signed the following day? These halfway-house contracts are worth £25,000 in addition to a county contract, but this is peanuts compared to the amount Flintoff could earn selling his services as a freelance Twenty20 cricketer. So it’s no surprise at all to hear that he is biding his time.
His manager is making all sorts of noises about short-term contracts in the southern hemisphere, and doubtless there will be no shortage of interested parties. Then there is the IPL – if Flintoff signs the ECB contract, his participation in 2010 would be limited to an income-slashing 3 weeks, whereas being able to play the full tournament would likely earn him more than a full year of ODIs for England.
Whilst there will no doubt be some gnashing of teeth and talk about greed and the showing of disrespect towards a nation and it’s fans, which of us would not think the same way if we were in Flintoff’s position?
It seems now that the one thing you can be sure of with an ECB contract is being worked into the ground to fulfil an endless stream of Bank Balance Cricket. For someone fresh out of surgery and facing a six-month layoff and an uncertain future, it’s not much of an incentive.
Before we start bemoaning the loss of a more innocent age, perhaps we should be reminded of the pre-Test era of travelling XIs of professionals, playing wherever there was an opponent willing to put their money where their mouths were. William Clarke’s All-England XI and John Wisden’s (no less) United All-England XI were rivals for coins at the gate rather than glory on the field.
W.G. Grace himself was more Shamateur than Amateur, charging exorbitant “expenses” that would make the most shameless back-bencher glance up from his duck house in admiration. Whilst his fame allowed him to get away with more than most, he certainly wasn’t alone.
The only difference between then and now is that it is the professionals that are commanding the fees rather than the amateurs and the entreprenuers. Rather than selling it’s soul, you could argue that cricket is returning to it’s roots.
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