Welcome back to the fold, Freddie. Now let’s make this a permanent arrangement

IT IS little surprise that this year's Ashes drew so many comparisons to 2005's epic, since so many of that great series' heroes were so prominently involved.

- Malik Ouzia

Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan were among the loudest voices on Sky and the BBC's flagship coverage. Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer all landed summer jobs in the English media, while the quips of their former Australian teammates tended to emerge overnight from a partisan commentariat back home.

A day of the Lord's Test was dedicated to the Ruth Strauss Foundation, the charity set up by Andrew Strauss in memory of his late wife. His '05 opening partner, Marcus Trescothick, remains within the inner sanctum as England's batting coach.

Generally, for two months straight, you could not open your inbox without being greeted by a PR email offering the tuppence of one of the ensemble cast.

And yet through it all, the man who emerged from that famous summer with twin accolades as both national hero and treasure was nowhere - or, at least, nowhere to be seen.

As we now know, Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff was an incognito presence at several of the five Test matches across the course of June and July, keeping out of the limelight, as he had for the previous nine months while recovering from the car crash that almost took his life.