Flintoff calls for Cook backing

LONDON: Former England captain Andrew Flintoff has said struggling current skipper Alastair Cook deserves fans’ support as he goes through a “blip” in his career.
Left-handed opener Cook, who only turned 30 in December, has scored an England-record 25 Test hundreds.
But he has not reached three figures for England in a Test for more than a year-and-a-half, with the ongoing first Test against the West Indies in Antigua — his 110th — seeing the Essex batsman dismissed for low scores of 11 and 13
But Flintoff, who bowed out of Test cricket when playing in the same 2009 Ashes-winning side as Cook, said the criticism of his former team-mate was unjustified.
“I get fed up of people having a go at Alastair Cook,” Flintoff told a sports TV channel on Thursday as he helped to launch this year’s English domestic Twenty20 Blast competition at Edgbaston, where he came within one boundary hit of winning the 2014 final with Lancashire.
“I was captain when Alastair came into the side,” the former England all-rounder added. “I got a lot of things wrong as England captain, but the one thing I got right was picking Alastair Cook.
“He’s one of England’s finest ever players. If you have a career spanning more than 100 Test matches, there are going to be blips along the way. But Alastair ... will get through this. I’d like to see people outside the England team backing the lad.