Right Said Fred?

Contributed by Subash Jayaraman

Mercenary or messiah? The next stage of evolution or definite sign of degeneration? Flintoff's freelance move has sparked off so many angles and aspects that we have to don a split personality to study it all. Here goes...

View: The idea of a 'freelance cricketer' is the summation; the symbolic representative of everything that we fear the T20 revolution will do to wreck the game.

Counterview: The 'freelance cricketer' is a liberating thought for cricket and cricketers. It is a clear evolutionary step forward from the broad chaos that has engulfed cricket since the T20 explosion.

V: We have always been afraid that a cricketer will eventually start picking T20 money over country. And now, someone of Flintoff's stature has gone ahead and done exactly that.

CV: The freelance cricketer is not one who picks money over country, but one who picks money with country, if it must be defined in terms of money and country. Flintoff is essentially looking to maximize his returns from his cricketing skills in a market that is willing to reward it. Turning down the ECB contract doesn't mean he refuses to play for England.

V: But it indicates that he'll pick and choose his matches for England based on his convenience. The existence of a ‘freelance cricketer’ model disrespects the concept of 'playing for your country'. Playing for your country should always be the first priority.

CV: On the other hand, it separates the wheat from the chaff. It separates those cricketers who genuinely want to play for their country out of passion from those with low commitment levels who are doing it just because they have to...now, now, Mr.Gayle, calm down, calm down please, we aren’t talking about you. Besides, if Flintoff really wants to appear in television shows and bungee-jump first and play for England later, the English cricket team has the right to not pick him.

V: The concept of nations competing is essential for cricket's long term growth and sustainability. That is one of the major factors that add passion, mass appeal and a sense of 'purity'. There is a larger-than-life charm and meaning in stories of how cricket is the one thing that brings all the West Indian islands together under one banner. That's cricket's true differentiator.

The value of international cricket can erode if cricketers start being more interested in local leagues.

CV: This has been a seething problem for quite some time. Players have been confused and disgruntled for a while now. Flintoff’s act should be used to draw attention to this and face the issue head-on rather than frown upon him and hope that the problem at large goes away.

T20, with its leagues, is too dynamic an entity for us to just expect it to quietly settle down subservient to the other formats. The establishment has to look at an overall reordering of the sport’s layout and calendar to ensure that international cricket retains its value, and there is a clear arrangement of schedules of when are the cricketers playing for thcountry eir and when are they playing for clubs.

Moves such as those made by Flintoff should spur the cricket boards and the ICC on to address these issues quickly. It may even get them to rethink meaningless ODIs, and other problematic clauses in their contracts.

V: The 'freelance cricketer' concept makes players bigger than the game. Eventually, the governing bodies will have no control over the players at all.

CV: Not at all! Note that without the contract Flintoff will have to pay his own medical fees, and no amount of T20 contracts can make up that figure! The ECB has control over him after all!

(Click here to know more about Sreeram)

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Right Said Fred?

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