England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, 31, is to retire from Test cricket at the end of the Ashes series against Australia because of persistent injury problems, the England and Wales Cricket Board said on Wednesday.
Here are some details about the life and career of Flintoff:
* LIFE DETAILS AND EARLY CAREER:
-- Flintoff was born in December 6, 1977 in Preston, England. He made his first class English county cricket debut for Lancashire in 1995 aged 18.
-- He represented England for the first time at Test level against South Africa in Nottingham, England, in July 1998.
* CAREER HIGHS:
-- Following an inconsistent opening to his international career, he knocked his highest career Test score of 167 against West Indies at Edgbaston in July 2004 and recorded career best bowling figures of 5-58 in subsequent tour in Antigua.
-- He scored 402 runs and took 24 wickets to inspire England as they regained the Ashes for the first time in 18 years with a 2-1 series victory over Australia in September 2005. Named man of the series, receiving the inaugural Compton-Miller Medal.
-- Flintoff won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2005 and ICC player of the year as well as being named Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in April 2006.
-- He was awarded an MBE in 2006.
A DOWNTURN:
-- He captained England for the first time in the 2006 tour of India in place of the injured Michael Vaughan. He took 11 wickets and scored five half-centuries in six innings, as England draw the series 1-1.
-- Ankle surgery then ruled him out of the home series against Pakistan but Flintoff retained the captaincy for England's disastrous defence of the Ashes as Australia won all five Tests to record the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.
-- Following Vaughan's return to fitness, Flintoff travelled to the 2007 World Cup in West Indies as vice-captain, but was stripped of the position because of a late-night drinking binge two days earlier following the defeat by New Zealand in their Group C opener.
INJURIES:
-- Flintoff underwent surgery in 2005 and 2006, the latter forcing him to miss the second half of the English season.
-- A fourth operation on his ankle in late 2007 removed extra bone and bone fragments which ruled him out until Test matches against South Africa in July 2008 when he became the 12th England player to take 200 test wickets.
2009:
-- Flintoff flew home from the Caribbean for treatment on a torn hip muscle and missed the fifth and final Test against West Indies. He had already missed the fourth Test. Flintoff hurt his right hip in the drawn third Test in Antigua but continued to bowl even though team mates said he was in pain.
-- England ended their ragged tour of West Indies on a high in April when a Flintoff hat-trick helped them beat the hosts by 26 runs to win the one-day series 3-2.
-- Flintoff again suffered injury twisting his right knee during the drawn first Ashes Test against Australia in Cardiff. However, England are optimistic that he will be fit for the second Ashes Test starting at Lord's on July 16.
