McGrath has advised Johnson to stay relaxed and keep it simple to be back at his best saying that the same approach always worked for him. “He needs to keep it simple. That is the key. He just has to clear his head and not complicate things,” McGrath was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

“Less things can go wrong when you keep it simple. I just used to switch a voice off in my head, pick out a song to sing at the top of my mark and trust myself that my body knew how to bowl. It didn’t always work. But if you win the battle with yourself, you are 75 per cent towards being successful,” he explained.

“I always used to find that the days in which you worried about your action you never bowled well. But days when you weren’t worried you bowled well. That’s all Mitch needs to do. Just relax. Even when he isn’t bowling well he still takes wickets. It is just a confidence thing. He needs to just run in and bowl,” McGrath added.

Talking about the other fast bowlers in the side that lost the Ashes to England, McGrath said Brett Lee stood some chance to return to the Test side but Australia may have found its long-term prospects in Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle.

“I have been very impressed with the three quicks. They have worked very well together. I think those guys are good enough to be there. They have done it in the past in South Africa and will continue to do so.”

“It is all about experience. They beat South Africa in South Africa. Those three guys will grow as time goes on. They were the leading wicket-takers in the Ashes from both teams. You can’t really sledge them too much because I think they have done pretty well,” McGrath said.

“If that’s the way that I or others, outside of what I’m thinking, decide ( is) the right way to go, there’s absolutely no reason why that couldn’t happen,” Ponting told reporters at the Sydney International Airport.

Ponting is only the second Australian captain after Billy Murdoch to twice lose the Ashes in England. The team also slipped to fourth place for the first time on the ICC Test rankings, having lost three of their past five series.

Ponting himself was given the one-day captaincy in 2002 and he shared the leadership with Steve Waugh until the latter retired from Test cricket in 2004. “It has happened in the past with Australian teams. It is happening with other teams around the world right at the moment.”

“Paul Collingwood is captain of the England Twenty20 team and Andrew Strauss is captain of the one-day and Test cricket teams. Those things are things that need to be thought long and hard about, even if it means that I’m going to be better off for Test matches and bigger series when they come around,” he said.

The 28-year-old Clarke has captained Australia in 11 ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals.

After retiring from test cricket and helping England regain the Ashes in his last series, the talismanic all-rounder dispelled the notion that he was a “great” player. Flintoff added that the timing of his exit from test cricket was just perfect as he can now watch his young family grow up and that to him was of far greater value than anything he could do on the field.

“I would rather be regarded as a decent bloke rather than any sort of cricketer I might have been,” Flintoff told reporters on the morning after the triumph. “That is far more important to me. Whatever you do on the cricket field is one thing, but being able to face yourself in the mirror every day and say ‘You’re not a bad egg’, that is far more important. Cricket is one thing, but I want some friends afterwards.”

“I don’t think I ever achieved greatness and I don’t profess to,” he added. “I was asked, ‘have you been a great cricketer’, and the obvious answer is no. That’s the Bothams, the Sobers, the Imran Khans, the Tendulkars, the Ricky Pontings, who achieved greatness over a long period of time by playing Test after Test after Test.”

“I have had an Ashes victory twice, I have had a Test career where I have played 79 Test matches, and hopefully I will go on playing one-day internationals, so from a professional point of view I am happy,” he said. “For the bulk of my career I have played through pain and with injury, so to be out on the field was an achievement in some ways. But is that greatness? No.”

The 31-year-old, whose 79-Test career was blighted by injuries, bowed out of cricket’s longest format as a member again of a winning Ashes side after England’s 197-run win here at the Oval on Sunday saw them take the five-match series against Australia 2-1.

Flintoff, whose right knee injury finally hastened his departure from the five-day format, may not have starred with bat or ball in his farewell Test. Yet he still took centrestage on Sunday by running out Ricky Ponting just when the Australia captain was in prime form and threatening to take the game away from England.

Then, at the very end of the game, when Mike Hussey inside-edged Graeme Swann to short leg to fall for a gutsy 121, his first instinct was to walk straight past the jubilant huddle of teammates that had gathered on the edge of the square, and offer the devastated Hussey a consoling handshake.

Flintoff, of course, made a similar gesture at the end of the Edgbaston cliffhanger in 2005, when Brett Lee was left stranded, a mere three runs short of victory. He said that his attitude in victory had been coloured by his own experience in defeat, at the end of the thrilling ICC Champions Trophy final in 2004, when Ian Bradshaw and Courtney Browne guided West Indies to a remarkable two-wicket victory in near-darkness.

“When we won, the opposition ran around all over the place,” Flintoff recalled. “We put our hands out, but there was noone to shake hands with. When you play in a series like that you have to respect the opposition. We had plenty of time to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company. It is par for the course to show the opposition some respect and shake their hands.”

Freddie, as his fans and teammates call him, often at the forefront of England’s victory celebrations, was this time much more reserved as he drank in the surroundings at the end of his farewell performance, and he even admitted a few tears were shed in the dressing room as he reflected on the fact that he’ll never again play in the ultimate form of the game.

“It was quite strange, to be honest,” he said. “I didn’t think I would get emotional but I did a little bit. I went up there and sat in the corner, the place I always sit at The Oval, on the left with my kit everywhere, and while the lads were jumping around and celebrating, it was a teary moment. Then I saw the Sky Sports cameras coming into our dressing room and I thought: ‘No-one’s seeing me crying’. I nipped into the toilets to give myself a minute and pull myself together.”

“The euphoria of being in an Ashes victory again, the realisation that I will not walk out in whites again, there was a lot of mixed emotion walking around the ground,” he said. “Seeing my family up in the box – my missus, the kids, my mum and dad and everyone. I enjoyed last night, however, it has actually dawned on me this morning that the next time England play a Test match I am not going to be involved, and that is something I will desperately miss. At this moment in time I am not sitting too comfortably.”

Flintoff also said that his emotions of never playing for England again were overshadowed by the happiness that he saw when his family – including his wife, Rachael, and their three children, Holly, Corey and Rocky – joined in the celebrations. “I was looking at the lads and how happy they were which was one thing, but then I looked at my wife and kids and I thought ‘I’ve made the right decision here’.”

“I’m probably not going to get 25,000 people in my house chanting my name,” he joked. “Or people shouting ‘Super Fred’ when I am doing the school run. However, you know, for me, spending time with my family and having the opportunity to do that is far more important and something I’m really looking forward to doing.”

Flintoff admitted that since his children are getting older, the days of long overseas tours was something he was happy to put behind him. “It is quite a nice time for me to finish,” he said. “The kids are coming to an age where they need their Dad around, and I am going to be there for them. Bittersweet as it is, having to finish Test cricket through injury, the one thing I am excited about is being at home. That is far more important than pinging a few down in a Test match.”

Moments after Flintoff’s press conference had finished, he got ready to go and meet a general anaesthetic, ahead of the knee operation that could make or break his future as a limited-overs specialist.

Freddie however isn’t thinking about the operation yet. He has something much more important coming up with the wedding of his long-standing physio, and the man who will guide his rehabilitation, Dave “Rooster” Roberts.

“That’s the next biggest day in my life,” he said. “Beefy is best man and I’m a page boy, which is quite fitting.”

Andy Flower took charge of a battered England team with England cricket probably at its lowest ebb after the sacking of coach Peter Moores and Kevin Pietersen stepping down as captain. Eight months later, he is being credited for making a team of different individuals into one cohesive unit which went on to win arguably the biggest test series in cricket.

Flower, though, didn’t want to take the attention away from his players, so shortly after Andrew Strauss picked up the urn he returned to be with his fellow coaches and reflect in his own, quiet, private way. It was fitting because Flower has never been one for shows of excitement and celebration.

“It’s great, we are very proud of ourselves,” he said. “I’ve learnt a hell of a lot. I don’t want to bore you with the details, I’d bore myself, but it’s been great fun. It’s a great challenge and I’m proud to have been given the responsibility of the position and now we have to move it forward.”

The hallmark of Flower’s eight-month tenure as coach has been his calmness in the face of a crisis – and there have been quite a few of them! His first Test as in charge ended with England bowled out for 51 and two weeks ago he had to contend with the embarrassment of a shocking defeat at Headingley. On each occasion the harsh talking has been done behind closed doors, while in public Flower has always spoken honestly, but with an air of control.

“Leeds was quite a blow. It was a bit of a shock playing like that,” he admitted. “But we got together after that game, before we all dispersed, and talked about it. I think we needed to get some closure on that game there and then, before we all disappeared to various parts of the country. The guys had a good look at themselves, and you could see the commitment and determination that they brought to the final Test.”

“He’s brought a bit of toughness with him,” Stuart Broad said after taking his Ashes-defining 5 for 37 on Friday. “You saw that throughout his playing career. To average over 50 as a wicket-keeper batsman was special. He’s also a relaxed character, so that can rub off on players. I enjoyed working with him on my batting when he was an assistant coach and he’s done a fantastic job since he’s taken over.”

These qualities will serve Flower well in the coming days and months, because now the biggest part of his task is keeping England focused on the task ahead.

“The guys will be fine, watching them last night they were fine,” Flower said. “They are pretty mature and they haven’t got time to rest on their laurels. We are off the Ireland tomorrow and we will start the hard work again. It’s worked out okay. You don’t want to go overboard. Three days ago we were bowled out for 300 and if we hadn’t bowled them out for 160 in the first dig we would be saying very different things.”

When Flower was first given the responsibility of coaching England on an interim basis for the West Indies tour, England didn’t have much stability. He said he would have to think about taking the role full-time, but when the squad returned from the Caribbean Flower knew, despite the series defeat, that it was a challenge he wanted, having formed a strong bond with Andrew Strauss.

“We knew it would be hard but when I took the job I was thinking about very small chunks of time,” he said. “Consolidating things in West Indies was the first thing we had to do. It helps a lot having a leader like Strauss around. He has been a rock around which the team has built innings and also he has shown very strong leadership on and off the field.”

“We put down a few guidelines and principles around which we wanted to build the unit in the first instance because there are various steps we want to go through to make us a better team. I don’t really want to go through the details but the guys have embraced them,” he said.

Ponting, who on Sunday became the first Australian captain since Billy Murdoch to twice lead Australia to Ashes series defeats in England, said the prospect of atoning for losses in 2005 and 2009 could convince him to return for one final campaign at the age of 38.

“We’ll see how I’m going in four years,” Ponting said. “Hopefully I’ll have another chance to play another Ashes series back in Australia, but it would be nice, with everything I’ve done in my career and the games I’ve played, to have some good memories from this ground. I might have to come back next time and find some.”

“With a loss, I’m more determined than ever to be a better player and leader than I am at the moment. I don’t really know what to expect when I get back. Hopefully most of the questions will be from journalists, not from people above. But we’ll see. I’ve felt I’ve given myself the best opportunity and done a good job as a captain and leader in this series. Leaders are always looked upon on their results on their team. Unfortunately for me and the rest of the guys we haven’t got the results we would have liked. Ultimately it is my responsibility to get the best out of the guys and to win series. I felt I ticked most of those boxed, other than making a few more runs myself,” he added.

Ponting looked a sorry figure at the post-match press conference after having seen his side self-destruct on at least three occasions in the series with first innings collapses at Lord’s, Edgbaston and The Oval, coupled with his bowlers’ inability to take the final England wicket at Cardiff.

Ponting said the sting of defeat at The Oval on Sunday was every bit as painful as that he felt at the same ground four years ago.

“I don’t think you can get any more disappointed than I am right now,” he said. “Looking back at 2005, I was feeling exactly the same back then. We all spoke about it and built the series up so much…but we’ve come up short. I’m obviously hurting, the rest of the guys are hurting as well.”

“For me, the leader, the captain, the most experienced player, it’s difficult for me to accept. It’s just as difficult for the rest of the guys. We couldn’t have done anything else; we have given ourselves the best opportunity. Just a couple of really bad sessions during the course of five Tests have cost us the series. When we were being good we were exceptional, when we were bad we were very poor. We need to become more consistent in our performances across the board.”

Australia have won just six of their last 16 Tests, during which they have suffered series defeats to India (away), South Africa (home) and now England. Sunday’s loss at The Oval has ensured their Test ranking has plummeted from first to fourth, marking the first time since 2003 the Australians have not held the top spot.

Despite their slide, Ponting insisted his current squad should be persisted with for future series. “I think there are a lot of Test wins in this series of players,” he said. “In a couple of years there are going to be a couple of guys coming in and going out with a couple of us getting a bit long in the tooth. They will win a lot of Test matches for Australia in the future. They will learn from their mistakes in this series.”

Andrew Strauss, Ponting’s nemesis in 2009, warned that Australia shouldn’t be counted out just yet and that they would come back strongly in Australia next year.

“The fact that they didn’t have the aura is because they have a lot of guys at the start of their career,” Strauss said. “If you think about it logically, they’re going to get better and better. Those guys are going to have experienced a huge amount in this series and they’re probably going to be more determined and hungry to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The last thing you’d ever say is that Australian cricket is in a bad place, because it’s far from it. They will continue getting better over the coming years.”

England mauled Australia by 197 runs on the fourth day of the fifth and final test to achieve the victory with a day to spare and took the series 2-1.

Australia, set what would have been a record fourth innings victory total of 546, were bowled out for 348 with Michael Hussey last man out for 121, when he was caught at short leg by Alastair Cook off spinner Graeme Swann as the Oval erupted with roars of England fans.

“It’s a special moment. It hasn’t sunk in yet. We had to dig in and fight,” said England skipper Andrew Strauss. “When we were bad in the series, we were very bad but when we were good we were very good.”

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said, “We gave it all we could, but it wasn’t enough. Full credit to England, they won the crucial moments and deserved to win the series.”

“I think this series has shown that Test cricket is alive and well around the world,” he added.

It was a remarkable turnaround for England, who’d lost the fourth Test by an innings and 80 runs at Headingley, and had only managed to cling on for a draw in the series opener at Cardiff by a single wicket.

Australia starting the day at 80 for no loss with both openers, Watson and Katich, at the crease was looking comfortable and made steady progress in the first half of the day. They were 217 for 2 before Ponting was run out by a brilliant direct hit by Andrew Flintoff in his last test match before retirement.

Five balls later, Michael Clarke was also run out brilliantly by Strauss for nought before England’s progress was checked by a sixth-wicket stand of 91 between Hussey and Brad Haddin.

But just as England fans were starting to become restless, Brad Haddin (34) made the mistake off hitting one straight to Andrew Strauss at mid-wicket off the bowling of Graeme Swann.

From 327 for five, the end came swiftly with four wickets going down for 16 runs in 32 balls, with fast bowler Stephen Harmison taking three for seven in 13 himself.

Mitchell Johnson went for a seven-ball nought, brilliantly caught by diving second slip Paul Collingwood off his Durham team-mate Harmison. Peter Siddle then got a leading edge off Harmison and Flintoff held a simple catch at mid-off.

Harmison made it two wickets in two balls when Stuart Clark was snapped up at short leg by Cook.

But Hussey continued to fight at one end reaching his century with two off Stuart Broad — his first Test century in 29 innings off 219 balls with 11 boundaries. He was the last wicket to fall as Graeme Swann, who had a memorable test match picking up 8 wickets in the match and scoring a brilliant 63 in the second innings, deceived Hussey in the flight as the left hander was caught at short leg by Cook to give England the much awaited victory.

Earlier, England had consolidated on Saturday the advantage gained from dismissing Australia for just 160, with Broad taking five for 37, in a second innings 373 for nine declared that featured a debut century from Jonathan Trott, who made 119.

Strauss’s declaration left the visitors needing to break the record for a successful Test fourth innings run-chase, of 418 for seven set by West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2002/03, to win this match.

The loss also knocked Australia off the top spot in the Test rankings. Australia has now slipped to the fourth spot behind South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.

At the moment of victory, all of England’s players rushed into a huddle on the edge of the square – all except for one, that is. In his moment of Test retirement, Andrew Flintoff’s first instinct was to seek out and console the crestfallen centurion Hussey, whose 121 from 263 balls had given his side a hope of salvation.

It symbolised the kind of sportsman Flintoff has been all throughout his career. Nobody can forget him consoling Brett Lee after England’s famous test win at Edgbaston in 2005 and he showed the same spirit when he went up to Hussey before joining his teammates in their celebrations.

It may have been Flintoff’s final day in test cricket but it was definitely England captain Andrew Strauss’s moment of glory. Nobody had given him a chance when he was named the captain earlier this year. But he showed strong leadership skills throughout the series. England was in a must-win situation coming to Oval to reclaim the Ashes but he led from the front both with the bat and on the field to give England fans what they had been waiting for since the last four years!

Brief Scores:

England 332 and 373 for 9 dec (Trott 119, Strauss 75, Swann 63) beat Australia 160 and 348 (Hussey 121, Ponting 66, Swann 4-120, Harmison 3-54) by 197 runs

Series Result: England wins the series 2-1

Man of the Match: Stuart Broad (England)

Man of the Series: MJ Clarke (Australia) and AJ Strauss (England)

Broad took 5 for 27 in 12 overs to remove five top order batsmen – Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin, with Graeme Swann providing some fine support and cleaning up the tale with figures of 4 for 38 as Australia were bowled out for just 160 in their first innings.

The brilliant bowling performance gave England, who made 332 in their first innings, a huge 172 runs lead in the first innings and by stumps on the second day they had extended that lead to 230 after ending the day at 58 for 3 in the second innings with three more days still to go in the game.

Although Australia did regain some lost ground by picking up 3 wickets in the final session of play as England’s top order frailties were exposed again, but with Andrew Strauss still batting on 32 and England’s leading already reaching 230, the majority of the worries are with the visitors on a pitch which is more reminiscent of Kanpur rather than the Oval! In particular, the manner of Alastair Cook’s dismissal – caught at slip as Australia’s part-timer, Marcus North, ripped an off-spinner across his bows – was ample proof of the traumas that lie ahead.

Before the start of their innings, Australia would have been wary of one big, pace-bowling all-rounder. But Flintoff, playing in his last test match, looked a little out of shape on a day where Broad, in only his 22^nd test match, took his 3^rd five wicket haul – the same number that Flintoff has managed in 79 tests.

Australia made a solid start to their innings on a dusty, crumbling pitch, after England were bowled out for 332 in their first innings starting on an overnight score of 307 for 8. Aussies were 72 without loss at one stage with Watson and Katich playing steadily until Strauss called upon Broad into the bowling attack as the fifth bowler and he struck with only his sixth ball sparking a collapse which saw Australia lose 8 wickets for 58 runs in an extraordinary second session.

“We bowled well as a unit. We talked about putting pressure on together and it proved to be my day as well as Graeme’s,” said Broad.

“We were delighted as a team to bowl them out for just 160. It was a patient wicket. We saw (Australian seamer) Peter Siddle put it in the right area, kept it tight and the wickets came for him. We knew that if we could keep the scoring rate down, it would come for us. I was looking to hit the top of off because I knew there was variation in the wicket,” he added.

Australia had lost 10 wickets for 87 runs in 30 overs. It was a dream position for England in a Test, with the series all square at 1-1, they had to win to regain the Ashes but one where Australia required merely a draw to retain them.

England have now given themselves a chance of only their second Ashes series win since 1986/87 when ironically, Broad’s father Chris Broad was the captain of the England team.

Brief Scores:

England 332 (Bell 72, Siddle 4-75, Hilfenhaus 3-71) and 58 for 3 (Strauss 32*, Trott 8*) lead Australia 160 (Broad 5-37, Swann 4-38) by 230 runs

Peter Siddle took four wickets as Australia reduced England to 307 for 8 on the first day of the deciding test.

At least three England batsmen got starts but then just threw away all the good work as England, on what could easily have been their day, squandered away the advantage. Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss contributed half-centuries to a close-of-play total of 307 for 8, while Jonathan Trott marked his Test debut with a very well composed 41, but once again, no single batsman was able to make the day his own. And as a series century count of 7 to 1 in Australia’s favour will testify, that has been the single biggest difference between the two sides.

England won the toss and elected to bat on a good batting pitch. They didn’t get off to the best of starts losing Cook (10) in the 5^th over with the score at 12 as he edged a Siddle delivery to Ponting at slip.

Skipper Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell then put together a solid partnership to get England back in front. At lunch, England was 108 for 1 with both Strauss and Bell looking very good.

They had advanced from 108 for one to 180 for three at tea, losing both Strauss and Paul Collingwood (24) in the second session. Strauss exited when the left-handed opener simply hung his bat outside off-stump against Ben Hilfenhaus and edged to Haddin. It was a tame end to an innings that saw Strauss complete an 89-ball fifty featuring 10 fours although replays suggested he too had been dismissed off a no-ball.

Siddle accounted for Collingwood as he slashed at one outside the off-stump and was caught at gully by Hussey.

Ian Bell battled hard for 72 but was unable to claim a maiden Ashes hundred in his 13th Test against Australia. Warwickshire colleague Jonathan Trott, making his Test debut, looked good in compiling 41 before he was spectacularly run out by Simon Katich.

In what came as a heartbreak for home fans, Andrew Flintoff – in his last Test before an injury-induced retirement – barely got going before he was caught behind off left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson for seven.

Flintoff walked out to a standing ovation. England’s talismanic all-rounder, who had helped them win the second test at Lord’s and was their highest scorer in the third test at Edgbaston, did not play in the last match at Headingley because the selectors feared that his injured knee would not last the entire match.

Siddle, who took a trio of top-order wickets, ended play for the day when he had Graeme Swann caught behind, the fast bowler finish with figures of four for 63 in 18.3 overs.

“I think we are in a pretty good position,” Siddle said. “To get eight wickets at the end of day and they are 300-odd, it’s pretty even.”

Brief Scores at end of Day 1:

England 307 for 8 (Bell 72, Siddle 4-63) v Australia

Both teams go into the fifth and final test at the Oval having won one game apiece.

But unlike four years ago when England arrived at Oval 2-1 up needing just a draw to win the series, this time it’s Australia who needs a draw to retain the Ashes and England has to win the decider to reclaim it.

England’s biggest worry is its top order batting. Only skipper Andrew Strauss has been able to make a century in the first four tests as compared to seven individual hundreds for Australia.

Gritty performances from the lower order has helped England make comebacks in the games so far but their batting fallibility was exposed in Headingley in the fourth test when they were dismissed cheaply in both the innings. Australia won by an innings and 80 runs to level the series, a win that bolstered Ricky Ponting’s chances of avoiding becoming the first Australia captain in over a century to lose two Ashes series in England.

Flintoff, who missed the fourth test after fears that the all-rounder’s knee would not last the game, is set to comeback for the final test. Also South African born Jonathan Trott is in line for a test debut in place of Ravi Bopara who was dropped after the fourth test for the continued batting failures in the series.

But the onus will most certainly be on England’s underperforming top and middle order batsmen such as Cook, Bell and Collingwood.

Another important consideration for England is how to pick up the 20 wickets in the game. The Oval pitches has always had the reputation of providing good bounce and carry to the fast bowlers early on in the match while offering some turn later on.

Strauss hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing two spinners in the game. “It’s definitely an option,” he said of Panesar teaming up with Swann. “It’s a pretty dry wicket. At the moment it looks like a belter, it looks like a great wicket to bat on, but there’s always a chance that it’s going to deteriorate in the back-end of the game.”

Whatever changes England make, Strauss will be satisfied if they are planned, unlike the frenetic start to the Headingley Test when Matt Prior, the wicketkeeper, hurt his back in the warm-up. That injury delayed the toss, Strauss was out quickly and England fell for 102 on the way to an innings-and-80-run loss.

“I just don’t want a wicketkeeper falling over five minutes before the toss,” he said, hoping for a more sombre lead-up,” he said.

By contrast Australia, for all the talk of giving Brett Lee his first Test of a tour where he has been ruled out so far with a side injury or recalling off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, seem set to go in with the same team that won inside three days at Headingley.

Although they will want to win, they know they do not have to force the pace at a ground where seven of the last 10 Tests have ended in a positive result.

Four years ago, when England needed ‘just’ a draw, they only got the result they wanted thanks to Pietersen’s 158 during which he was dropped by Shane Warne.

It was often said when Australia were the outstanding side in Test cricket at the start of this decade that the best way to beat them was for an opposition player to have the game of his life.

Australia greats Glenn McGrath, Warne and Adam Gilchrist may have retired but England fans, contemplating the task facing their side, would be forgiven for thinking little has changed.

“At Cardiff, on the first day of the Ashes series, the atmosphere was dead for the first few hours but then all of a sudden Freddie came to the crease and the whole ground was lifted. It was phenomenal and no other player in world cricket – apart from Sachin Tendulkar – has that ability,” Vaughan wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

“He was a great player to captain. He could be difficult at times, because he is not the most professional cricketer, but with Fred you accept the whole package,” he added.

Flintoff will be playing his final test match at the Oval when England faces off against Australia in the fifth and final match of the Ashes. Vaughan said he always knew that Flintoff is a star but he came to realise the all-rounder’s true impact on English cricket only after interacting with fans post-retirement.

“As England captain I had an awareness of how much Fred could lift the supporters, but the real significance of that did not sink in until this summer when I have sat in the crowd and seen at first hand his popularity,” he revealed.

Recalling his equation with Flintoff, who also made headlines for his alcohol-related misdemeanors, Vaughan said the flamboyant cricketer needed to be comforted in tough times.

“Fred likes to be loved and he is quite soft at heart. He needs an arm around his shoulder because he does not respond to be ranted and raved at. I would just talk to him and remind him what good a player he was and the impact he could have on the game,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan, who rose to fame when he led England to the 2005 Ashes triumph, said Flintoff was at times quite a headache when it came to disciplinary matters.

“Fred was sometimes difficult to deal with behind the scenes and I wouldn’t agree with the theory that he was the heartbeat of the dressing room.”

“We had our ups and downs and there were times when I would think about the headaches he caused. We would have debates and confrontation but handling that is the art of captaincy and we always had respect for each other. We have become very good friends and in fact speak more now than we ever did,” he said.

However, Vaughan said for all his frailties, Flintoff is an icon and would inspire generations to come.

“Overall Fred has been a great person for the game of cricket. The public look at him and remember how he has entertained them. Statistically he is not a great player, but I have seen at close quarters what he has brought to the England team over the last few years and also the fans don’t care about stats,” he said.