Andrew Flintoff’s father has spoken out in defence of his son after the robust criticism by Duncan Fletcher in the former England coach’s latest autobiography.
Fletcher claimed that the England allrounder had an alcohol problem and showed up for practice on the Ashes tour last winter when under the influence of drink. Flintoff’s father, Colin, naturally defended his son Tuesday, saying that Andrew, who is in Florida recuperating from his latest ankle operation, had been upset by Fletcher’s comments.
“The golden rule is that what goes on in the dressing-room stays in the dressing-room,” Flintoff Sr said. “Fletcher has betrayed Andrew’s confidence. I am upset that he has done this for the sake of his book. There is no bigger team player than Andrew.”
Fletcher’s comments in his book, Behind The Shades, have received a mixed response. Some blame him for betraying a team confidence, while others say it is Flintoff who had let the side down.
Fletcher also settled some scores with three broadcasters in the extracts serialised in a newspaper Tuesday. He blamed Sir Ian Botham for being an unhealthy influence on Flintoff — Botham is said to have taken Flintoff out drinking until 7am one night during the Ashes tour — and railed at Geoffrey Boycott and Henry Blofeld, the radio commentators, for what he believed were unfair criticisms of Fletcher and his team.
The chorus of protest against Fletcher reached its height in attacks on his decision to play Ashley Giles ahead of Monty Panesar and Geraint Jones ahead of Chris Read at the start of last winter’s Ashes series. The former coach has his answers to these critics, too.
The decision to pick Giles, Fletcher says, was backed by management, selectors, team and most judges in the media. Where Fletcher feels he might have erred was in not following his instinct in picking both spinners for the second Test in Adelaide. “I should have been stronger but what do you do when the vote is so convincingly against you? It was why I made my much publicised ‘I’m not the sole selector’ comment after this Test,” he wrote.
Fletcher is not the only Ashes-winning coach to lay into a much-loved player in an autobiography.
