Andrew Flintoff jokes that England cheated in Ashes 2005

Andrew Flintoff wants England to adopt day and night Test format

Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff agreed on a TV interview that his side had cheated in the fourth Test of Ashes 2005. Host Waleed Aly was referring to England’s use of Gary Pratt as a substitute fielder.

Aly, co-host of Channel 10’s ‘The Project’, questioned Freddie, “Remember in 2005 when you got that guy who was a gun fielder and he ran Ricky Ponting out? That was cheating, wasn’t it?” To this Flintoff replied, “Yeah. Yeah of course it was.”

Soon news stories about England cheating in that match started coming out. The former cricketer took to social media to clear his stance. He tweeted, “I cheated I bowled too fast and hit the ball too hard, before knickers are twisted I appear to be joking.”

I cheated I bowled too fast & hit the ball too hard ,before knickers are twisted I appear to be joking @theprojecttv https://t.co/t2vMzlWpbh

— andrew flintoff (@flintoff11) December 1, 2015

Factually, in that Test, Pratt had replaced bowler Simon Jones who was taken to hospital owing to an ankle injury. Pratt’s direct hit at the striker’s end had cost Ricky Ponting’s wicket. Ponting was quite vocal about his disappointment and had to face disciplinary action because of the same.

Later he had said, “My frustration at getting out was compounded by the fact that I was run out by a substitute fielder, an issue that has concerned us from the start of this series and one we raised before the series.” Not just this match, Australia had lost the series with a scoreline of 2-1.

In the interview Ponting also supported Australia’s decision to field team’s masseur and logistics co-ordinator Grant Baldwin as a replacement for injured Mitchell Starc. The 37-year-old said, “Give him(Baldwin) a break, he's living the dream. This poor lad day in, day out is rubbing Peter Siddle's glutes. He deserves an opportunity to get out onto the field. I'd have let him bat as well.”

Flintoff feels England should play day and night Tests as they will be “unbeatable” in that format. He said, “I hope that they do it. I would love England to play day-night Test cricket, we would be unbeatable,” he said. Everyone’s going on about the ball swinging, doing this and that, that’s just what we do. It would be ideal. Ultimately the public are going to decide what they want to watch, and it says that 120,000 odd people watched the Test match. It is a success.”