News today that following his latest in a long line of knee operations, Andrew Flintoff has retired from all cricket. It's hardly a surprise that it's happened - if anything, the surprise is that it's taken this long to finally make the call. He now looks set for a media career where his carefully honed jack-the-lad image will no doubt work for him.
With all the drunken hoonery at Trafalgar Square and the pedalo incident, there's reason for forgetting there was a pretty good cricketer underneath it all. Like most of his generation of England player, the high-water mark of his career was the 2005 Ashes. At this point, everyone thought the world was his for the taking. However, injuries were mounting and a disastrous spell in charge of England, losing the Ashes 5-0, didn't do him any favours. But to over-analyse his career would be to miss the point. He emptied bars; people wanted to watch him. Grounds around the world weren't big enough if he connected and everyone loves a 90+ mph bowler, especially one as whole-hearted as him. The highlights reel has plenty of candidate footage, but we'll leave you with this, perhaps his finest hour:
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