The Flintoff phenomenon

Michael Henderson talks to the sporting hero who is set to lift England’s hearts at the Oval

‘Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight!’ But when it comes, as it has this summer, what joys fly upon its wings. As the fifth and final cricket Test against Australia takes place at the Oval this weekend, the whole kingdom, it seems, is one with Shelley. Should England, who are 2–1 to the good, win or draw, they will regain the Ashes, the little urn that symbolises the longest-running rivalry in international sport, and banish 16 years of humiliation.

Since Australia won the first Test at Lord’s by 239 runs, to confirm the master-servant relationship they have come to take for granted, England have hit back with a ferocity that has startled the tourists, winning the Tests at Birmingham and Nottingham, and coming within a wicket of success in Manchester on a day when 20,000 people were turned away from Old Trafford.