Legends of Sports

Andrew Flintoff, on Monday, said Sachin Tendulkar’s longevity should not blind India of the fact that they would be facing a similar situation like Australia when their best players called it a day around the same time.

“Sachin (Tendulkar) is still scoring runs. He could carry on forever. But Sachin,Dravid and Laxman would all go one day and that could leave a hole, like it happened with Australia when Hayden, Langer, Gilchrist, McGrath, all finished around the same time,” said Flintoff, who’s on a promotional visit to the city.

This year's lead-up to the Ashes, which began Thursday at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, aka The Gabba, has been the most unusual for decades. But then these England-Australia Test match cricket series are nothing if not unusual sporting contests.

Contested twice every four years at 18-month and two-and-a-half year intervals, the Ashes, like all Test match series, counts for nothing other than the glory of winning. There's no bigger championship toward which victory contributes. The winners don't even get to raise aloft the ancient urn that gives the clash its name—it's so delicate that it rarely moves from its home at Lord's Cricket Ground.