Catch IPL

Freddie Flintoff bowled the first six overs of his comeback after knee surgery; two before play and four during the lunch interval in the match between Lancashire and Somerset on Sunday.

Even better news: Kevin Pietersen is operating at fully 70 per cent fitness. One must look on the bright side after learning on Monday that his fragile back-Achilles tendon condition could ground him at any time without notice.

Do the twin pillars on whom all Ashes hopes rest still believe the Indian Premier League was worth the bounty trousered? Money can’t buy that winning feeling of 2005 when victory over Australia catapulted England’s cricketers and their sport to the forefront of British public life.

England do not have the strength in depth that allowed Australia to avenge the series defeat at home to South Africa with a win away from home three months later minus their principal strike bowler. Don’t get carried away by Australia’s Tenty20 exit. The 20 over thrash is to cricket what five-a-side is to football; a different game. Ireland made it to the super 8s for goodness sake.

We don’t have a Phillip Hughes coming through, or a Mitchell Johnson to step up with ball and bat when Brett Lee goes down. We have an improving team replete with superior triers who are able to compete in the highest class only when its front-line warriors are tooled to the hilt and ready to go.

At this point Flintoff and Pietersen are not. Flintoff is inching towards recovery. Each outing is followed by a wait to see if the impaired knee joint can tolerate the next test. Pietersen does not have that luxury. Two days before the knock that nailed Pakistan to the floor at the Oval he could barely negotiate a set of steps. Two days from now he could be back in purdah.

Pietersen concedes that the cure is probably rest, three months of it. Three months he doesn’t have. The England itinerary reads like the schedule of a workaholic on speed. The Twenty20 World Cup feeds into The Ashes, feeds into the Champions Trophy, feeds into a winter in South Africa.

Pietersen felt the injury nibble in the Barbados Test during the tour to the West Indies. The condition is not straightforward. Pain manifests itself anywhere from his back to his heel. It displays the classic symptoms of wear and tear.

Cricket is as hard on the joints as any professional sport. In the West Indies, England spent days in the field labouring against batsmen anchored to dead pitches. Pietersen is a tall man. Tall men are prone to back problems. Tall cricketers put their bodies through hoops that are not designed for them. Rest needs to be built into the programme. The IPL engagement was not rest.

The issue of money is important here. Cricketers have spent too long at the wrong end of sport’s financial rainbow picking up relative peanuts compared to counterparts in football, for example, who are no better skilled but way better paid. The inducement to pad up in the IPL was almost impossible to resist.

There is always a compromise, a price to pay. Flintoff pulled up lame playing for Chennai. Pietersen put his creaking bones through a greater load in the cause of the Bangalore Royals.

When faced with the same work-rest quandary the Australia captain and vice-captain, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clark, opted to stay at home with feet up. But then, they had profited in the inaugural tournament a year before and were, perhaps, better equipped to resist the pull of pound notes.

The statistics after the 2005 Ashes epic do not necessarily make the case for panic. Flintoff and Pietersen have contributed to only three victories in 20 Tests when paired together. That run includes the 5-0 hammering in Australia when the attack that beat the old enemy in ‘05 was disrupted by injury and loss of form.

Remember Steve Harmison’s first delivery, fielded at second slip by Flintoff without being diverted by the batsman. On their own they can’t win matches. But in a halfway competent side they can make a difference. This England is a different proposition, much improved by a dependable captain operating within a stable framework, capable of properly supporting a pair of proven match-winners.

We must hope that Pietersen’s injury is manageable. A cortisone injection did the trick on Sunday. It is not ideal. A leg that can’t function without chemical support will not stay in one piece forever. If only for the sake of his long-term health Pietersen would not want to prolong a dependence on the needle.

So we await the next bulletin from Lancashire and England. The ebb and flow of an Ashes summer is already under way.

Copyright@google news