Freddy Flintoff - no harm done

Take a bow Freddy

OK, after losing the game against the Black Caps, Freddy gets on the large and gets caught and punished.

I think Freddy should stand up and take a bow. Cricket needs these sorts of characters.  The fitness demands of international cricket are not as onerous as Rugby League or Rugby, so no real damage was done.   A few extra beers were never going to do him any harm, so what is the big deal?

The only thing that was damaged was his pride.  Not at getting drunk, not at getting caught, but at falling out of the pedalo – I mean these things look damm hard to fall out of, and how he managed to end up in the ocean after taking one of these for a ride is well beyond me.

From one great character to another I loved the fact that Ian Botham supported him.   All this nonsense about him having to behave in a certain way is over the top. 

This incident also reminded me of Chris Cairns at the 2003 World Cup , when he was at a Durban nite club celebrating the fact his partner was pregnant.  He ended up getting whacked by someone, after being after leave for removing his shirt.

Cairns copped some flack, but there was no real damage done.  Contrast this with Andrew Symonds who turned up reeking of booze to an ODI against

Bangladesh in 2005. That was just dumb.  Let players take responsibility for their actions off the field.   If they do something stupid, and then by all means dish out the fines and punishments, but if no real harm is done, then let it be.

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