Flintoff disciplined: booze suspected

[BoyBrumby]

From The Guardian.

Don't think this has been mentioned elsewhere. Fred missed an 08.10 bus to take the players to the Flanders war graves after attending what his captain called "a team dinner the night before and alcohol wasn't banned." Hmm. Lengthening bevy rap sheet, our Freddie.

 

[GIMH]

Think social mentioned it in passing somewhere, but yeah, Freddie missed the bus, deary me. If he was rubbish we'd have well binned him by now!

 

[pasag]

Pity England aren't playing someone like Canada in the near future, could have banned him in a real show of force.

 

[social]

Pity England aren't playing someone like Canada in the near future, could have banned him in a real show of force.

Nope, that would risk another Netherlands-like result

It would have to be Canada under-9s before that happened

 

[zaremba]

Pity England aren't playing someone like Canada in the near future

Australia: Canada?s Antipodean Twin | rabble.ca

 

[rivera213]

Flintoff is 1 step from being an alcoholic.

This is the type of crap Tony Adams used to do before he admited it to himself.

All this talk about it NOT being 1 rule for 1 and 1 rule for everyone else is a joke. Had Bresnan done this, he'd have been dropped.

 

[fredfertang]

Why on earth is this internal stuff being released to the media?

 

[scorpiogal]

Flintoff is 1 step from being an alcoholic.

And you know this how? Maybe he just missed the bus?

You don't make statements like that about someone's condition unless you a) know them personally and b)wait there is no 'b', cause there's no way you'd know that.

 

[social]

Flintoff is 1 step from being an alcoholic.

This is the type of crap Tony Adams used to do before he admited it to himself.

All this talk about it NOT being 1 rule for 1 and 1 rule for everyone else is a joke. Had Bresnan done this, he'd have been dropped.

One is good enough to make excuses for, the other is not good enough to make the team in the first place

 

[BoyBrumby]

Why on earth is this internal stuff being released to the media?

Flintoff having his card marked, I suppose. Might even be a deliberate attempt at a name amd shame in lieu of a proper intervention.

Doesn't seem to have worked apres pedalogate tho, so no reason to think it will now.

 

[fredfertang]

Hugely divisive in my view - by all means give him a bollocking but it's just playing into the Aussies hands to do it in public - why don't the ECB ever want to tell the press to foxtrot oscar these days

 

[BoyBrumby]

Agree it doesn't look too clever from the outside and I only know what I've read in yer meedja but there might be something of the last resort about it, perhaps?

The article alludes to Fred having some pop-related issues on the 06/07 tour and, unless my memory fails me, I can't recall them being publicised at the time, so they were presumably dealt with (or not dealt with) in-house. This latest incident could be (and I hope I'm wrong) a Symonds-esque straw breaking the camel's back.

Papers have been quite restrained, really. Given where he was supposed to be going the whole thing could easily be spun into a "Flintoff disrespects veterns" beat up.

 

[GIMH]

Pity England aren't playing someone like Canada in the near future, could have banned him in a real show of force.

Agree with fertang. All this sort of stuff does is pisses Freddie off. if he needs a bollocking so be it, but the name and shame failed miserably with him in the past.

 

[rivera213]

And you know this how? Maybe he just missed the bus?

You don't make statements like that about someone's condition unless you a) know them personally and b)wait there is no 'b', cause there's no way you'd know that.

He missed the bus because he got pissed and this isn't the first time he's done something of this ilk.

I don't know Tony Adams either but the behaviour is exactly the same.

Ditto for Symonds.

One is good enough to make excuses for, the other is not good enough to make the team in the first place

I was refering to Strauss' comments in his press conference, not my opinion.

 

[Richard]

Don't think anyone knows the matter intimately enough to comment on Flintoff's level of booze difficulty. I've come accross not a few who enjoy a drink a little too much without coming particularly close to alcoholism; I've also come accross a few who are indeed one step behind it.

Either way, he could do to loosen-up on the old boozing from time to time. But he's far from Jesse Ryder standard - very far.

 

[Uppercut]

Don't think anyone knows the matter intimately enough to comment on Flintoff's level of booze difficulty. I've come accross not a few who enjoy a drink a little too much without coming particularly close to alcoholism; I've also come accross a few who are indeed one step behind it.

This. None of anyone's business either.

 

[BoyBrumby]

This. None of anyone's business either.

Disagree. If an employee can't function normally because of alcohol it's a problem for their employer, so it's their business too.

Not sure I'm comfortable with it being made public, but given there's seemingly been times when Fred's boozing issues haven't it does leave us to speculate what the reasons might be for this incident making the fourth estate.

 

[Uppercut]

Disagree. If an employee can't function normally because of alcohol it's a problem for their employer, so it's their business too.

Not sure I'm comfortable with it being made public, but given there's seemingly been times when Fred's boozing issues haven't it does leave us to speculate what the reasons might be for this incident making the fourth estate.

I meant anyone on this forum. Obviously it's an issue for the ECB if he does have a problem.

Regarding it making the papers, I suspect it was either leaked or the ECB feared it would be. Strauss coming out and saying, "there was an incident, we dealt with it, we moved on" is a lot better than the papers getting hold of it and the ECB being seen to try to cover it up.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I meant anyone on this forum. Obviously it's an issue for the ECB if he does have a problem.

Regarding it making the papers, I suspect it was either leaked or the ECB feared it would be. Strauss coming out and saying, "there was an incident, we dealt with it, we moved on" is a lot better than the papers getting hold of it and the ECB being seen to try to cover it up.

Dunno, the cricket world seems fairly close knit, what with a lot of writers being ex-pros and all, and until very recently it seems a lot of Symonds's indiscretions weren't made public despite them (apparently) being an open secret amongst the cognoscenti, so I'm inclined to read more into the omerta being broken myself.

Doesn't mean I'm right, tho, obv.

 

[pup11]

I think the posters on these forums have every right to express their own views regarding any topic they like, if Flintoff has done something wrong, then he would have to face the brickbats from fans and critics alike, though whether he was under the influence of booze during this incident, is still not clear, but he clearly has had a history of booze related problems, and naturally people would talk about it.

Symonds was criticised pretty openly on these forums, for his booze related indiscretions, don't see why Freddie should be an exception.