Law backs Lancashire team-mate Flintoff for first Test

1:11pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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LANCASHIRE captain Stuart Law claimed Andrew Flintoff should return for England “as soon as he is ready” after helping his side to victory yesterday.

Flintoff finally rediscovered some batting form to hit a swashbuckling 62 not out as Lancashire beat Sussex by eight wickets at Hove to move second in the LV County Championship.

It was a welcome knock from the all-rounder, who only recently returned from a six-week lay-off with a side strain and whose previous three innings going into the match were all ducks.

Flintoff also bowled 34 hostile, albeit wicketless, overs in the match to enhance his international claims ahead of the first Test against South Africa next week.

Law said: “He bowled superbly well against Sussex even though he didn’t take a wicket on a track that never helped the bowlers.

“I gave him the opportunity to bat number four in the second innings and he said, ‘Give it to me, I want it’. We wanted to get the runs as quickly as we could and if Fred starts going nothing can stop him and that’s the way it was.

“Selfishly, I wouldn’t mind if (England) left him out for the whole series. That would mean him playing more matches for Lancashire.

“But he’s a world-class performer. He’s a guy for whom you turn up and watch cricket. You do anything to see him bat and bowl.

“I think England have missed him greatly. From their point of view, I think as soon as he’s ready he should play.”

But England will remain patient with all-rounder Flintoff rather than rush him back into Lord’s Test action next week.

National selector Geoff Miller is today expected to reveal an unchanged 12-man squad for the first match of the npower series against South Africa.

Unlike earlier in the summer, however, England will resist naming the same party for back-to-back Tests, allowing Flintoff, 30, the opportunity to press his claims for a return at Headingley in the second of a four-match campaign.