Test cricket will be very different after Freddie. The man who has done more than all the rest combined to re-ignite the British public's cricketing passion is to retire from the premium form of the game at the end of this Ashes summer.

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A prolonged cycle of injury and rehabilitation has sapped his body to breaking point. Enough is enough.

Famously criticised by Duncan Fletcher for tipping the scales at the weight of a heavyweight boxer, Andrew Flintoff has endeared himself to the public with his full-throttle approach to everything associated with the game.

He has two settings - flat out and flat out plus a bit more. On the field he bowls blisteringly quickly and hits the ball miles. Off the field, his capacity for excessive 'celebrating' has entered into folklore.

Flintoff has been forgiven for so many indiscretions - think back to the pedalo incident and the 'cigar for breakfast' line - because his public persona has always been underpinned by a sense of fun.

While some have suggested a darker side to his relationship with drink, the comical aspect of his escapades has ensured his image remains largely untarnished.

It is, of course, much easier to forgive a hero. Unless he has one final hurrah in the final four matches of the present series, 2005 will be the year for which he is always remembered.

He lifted a team that had been crushed by Glen McGrath at Lord's and a nation resigned to another year of disappointment with two innings of wondrous anarchy at Edgbaston. He single-handedly changed the momentum of that series and gave all of England reason to believe.

Viewed purely in black and white, Flintoff's career statistics will never bear comparison with the game's truly great all-rounders, the likes of Gary Sobers, Ian Botham and Jacques Kallis.

But to focus on this would be to entirely miss the point of Andrew Flintoff. His greatness isn't written on a page, it stems from his innate ability to inspire those around him, his teammates and those watching.

Gifted a cricketer that he is, his most special and wholly unquantifiable talent is for seizing the moment, igniting the crowd and changing the course of a match.

Flintoff will continue to play for England in the shorter forms of the game; he will also earn several small fortunes in the IPL in coming years.

He appears to be a man who doesn't waste time with regrets, but England fans should, with some justification, wonder whether, had he ever been afforded the time to overcome any of his injuries properly, he might have had a few more years in the Test arena.