As a dog to his vomit, I return to the theme that this Ashes series hasn’t been very good. Take these figures on Freddie Flintoff’s averages in this series:
Batting: 40.25. Bowling: 30.36.
Compare them to the career record of Tony Greig:
Batting: 40.43. Bowling: 32.20.
Pretty much identical. Sure, Freddie’s had the better strike rate (a wicket every 50.5 balls against Greig’s 69.4), but at a worse economy rate; 3.6 against 2.77. But these probably reflect changes in the game generally rather than differences in the men’s skills.
And Greig was, remember, an even better slip fielder, taking 87 catches in his 58 matches.
So, the two records are, give or take, the same. England’s glory, superstar, Freeman of Preston has achieved in this series what Tony “humiliated by the Windies” Greig achieved over a whole career. And no-one’s accusing Freddie of under-performing this summer.
I’m not denigrating Freddie at all here. Merely pointing out that there might just be a teeny element of hype around.
A caveat: one member of the England team who’s risen in my esteem is Michael Vaughan. The Sunday Times reports that he’s got two cats.
This corroborates (or at least doesn’t disconfirm) one of my priors. Most of the great men in history have loved cats: Churchill, Newton (inventor of the cat-flap), Dickens, Abe Lincoln, P,G.Wodehouse. By contrast, many of the villains have hated cats, or preferred dogs: Hitler, Napoleon, Mussolini, Stalin.
I refuse to believe this is a coincidence.