AT SOME POINT DURING THE SERIES IT’LL GO OFF: FLINTOFF

On the eve of the Ashes, Freddie Flintoff has revealed that while he fully expects there to be less sledging during the tests, he does believe that ‘at some point during the series it will go off’.

Australia have long been considered the masters at sledging. However, with reports claiming that they have been warned to go easy on the intimidation and verbal battles by Cricket Australia and the absence of key ‘sledgers’ such as Shane WarneShane Warne, the rivalry is not expected to be as explicit as normal. But Flintoff still expects it to appear.

He told Tim Lovejoy’s channelbee.com: ‘The Aussies are notorious for sledging, but Shane Warne and Glenn McGrathGlenn McGrath aren’t there, so I’m not sure how much of that there will be. But at some point during the series, it’ll go off for a little while.

‘Even though the Aussies have lost a few players, they’ve got a knack of finding people pretty quickly. The likes of Ricky Pontin that we know about, but also the keepers have always got a bit to say behind the stumps and they’ve also got some young bowlers coming through.

‘I think that a lot is said about sledging but I think it’s more important the intent that you show, not necessarily by words but the way that you carry yourself. It’s the bowler’s job to do that as well, you have to start straight on it, show intent towards the batsmen. So you always see people like Paul CollingwoodPaul Collingwood coming in and making his presence known and that’s part and parcel of it.

‘So even though they’ve lost some of those players, like Warne, they’ll still be a strong, strong side, but definitely beatable’.