2010 Champions League: Andrew Flintoff picked up for Chennai’s provisional squad
English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff has been picked for Chennai Super Kings preliminary squad for the 2010 Champions League tournament to be staged in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. A knee injury during last year's Ashes series has kept the all-rounder out of cricket for almost one year now and is yet to make a comeback to international cricket.
Andrew Flintoff, nicknamed as "Freddie" or "Fred", signed a record $1.55 million deal with the Chennai Super Kings in 2009. The deal made him the most expensive player in the league along with his teammate Kevin Petersen. However, the most expensive player could only represent Chennai in three T20 matches as he scored 62 runs with the bat and took two high-priced wickets. However, the English all-rounder had to return home after hurting his knee once again.
Andrew Flintoff was born on 6th December, 1977 in Preston, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lancashire-c806. Flintoff has played for England, Lancashire and the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League during his career. At the moment, the Lancashire all-rounder is also struggling with his form and fitness and is unable to make a comeback to limited over’s squad for England. Flintoff is currently planning to take part in various T20 leagues around the globe to make a slow and gradual comeback to international cricket. Flintoff said that he is hopeful that he will restart cricket in the coming few weeks.
Flintoff has started some net practice with Lancashire and the situation is pretty encouraging. The all-rounder himself is satisfied with his batting and has said that he will pick up the ball once he is satisfied with the bat.
Flintoff said, "I'm going to have to play in second team first and force my way back into the first team but with the way I'm batting, I'm hoping to do that with the bat initially and then pick up the bowling from there."
The injury-prone Flintoff has been an integral part of English cricket since his debut in 1998. His importance can be gauged by the fact that the all-rounder has also served as the captain of the national side on a number of occasions. During his 13 year international career, Flintoff has gone through regular injuries owing to his heavy frame and his complex bowling action. Between 2007 and 2009, England played 36 Test matches where Flintoff could only make the playing XI on just 13 occasions. Yet, he remained an indispensible part of the squad and was recalled to the national side whenever he was available.
On 15 July 2009, Flintoff announced that the 2009 Ashes series would be his last Test appearance after which he retired from test cricket on August 24. In his 79 test match career, he took 226 wickets and scored 3,845 runs including 5 centuries and 26 half centuries. He played 141 ODI’s for England and took 169 wickets while scoring 3,394 runs.
Flintoff seems to be all set to take part in the upcoming Champions League in South Africa where nine teams from across the globe will take part in September. Due to differences between the PCB and the BCCI, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s domestic T20 champions will become the only team not to participate in this years’ event.
However, out of the total nine confirmed teams, eight teams have announced their provisional squads for the 2010 Champions League. The only team which has yet to confirm its preliminary squad is Wayamba from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758. August 9 serves as the last date of confirmation for the final 15-man squad for the tournament. Many cricket pundits will be glued to this tournament to see if Andrew Freddie Flintoff can make a comeback once again.
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