THE tale of Andrew Flintoff, the emerging allrounder, continues. As stories go, it is a slow read but we are getting there and you have to admit that the good bits have certainly been entertaining and exciting. In between, one might say that there has been too much narrative and scene-setting.

Every time I try to assess Freddie it does not help that I look across a commentary box, catch sight of Ian Botham, and the instant comparison inevitably leaves one wondering if the current candidate will ever be able to challenge the achievements of one of the true greats.

Nonetheless, the good news is that Flintoff’s all-round game is developing in an England team that is now third in the world rankings after that wonderful 3-0 series victory against the West Indies. The century he made in Antigua gave us the first real indication that he has it within him to work hard for a meaningful hundred.

It was the most important of his three hundreds for England because it meant so much to the team. After the top order had missed the boat it was in Flintoff’s hands whether the team floundered or survived long enough to make the task of batting second time around to save the game substantially less daunting.

We all know he has the power to bludgeon bowling and that when he hits a cricket ball it stays hit. How ironic, therefore, that in the second innings at Antigua, when presented with a full toss, the sort of delivery that as a schoolboy he would have deposited two counties away, he merely chipped it to midwicket. No matter, he had done the hard work earlier when it counted most.

That work involved a long period of concentration. It proved he has the capacity to be a real number six and if that learning curve of his continues in the right direction it bodes well not just for the coming series against New Zealand and West Indies this summer but also for the next Ashes crunch which, as ever, is never far away.

So, on the first count, as a batting allrounder, is he approaching Botham? No. I remember Ian batting out to save a game in Madras on Keith Fletcher’s tour of 1981-82, at a relatively similar point in his career. He stonewalled the spinners for hours. I cannot see Flintoff doing that at the moment, nor can I see him hooking the equivalent of Dennis Lillee off his eyebrows into the stands at Old Trafford, one of my most vivid memories of Ian.

That is because his footwork is not up to what is required to play a grown-up hook shot against grown-up fast bowling. This does not to suggest he cannot play fast bowling, just that to succeed regularly against the quicks he needs to limit his game to what works.

As a bowler his figures do not stack up. His strength is that he bowls what they call a “heavy” ball with accuracy. It is why he has been so successful in one-day cricket, but he will not increase his strike rate unless he learns some new tricks. I say that despite the evidence of the third Test in Barbados. I had been asking on commentary what he had to do to take more wickets, and the answer was provided right before my eyes as he took his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

But he needs to develop a delivery that goes away from the right-handers. Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev all swung the ball and all of them had averages that ranged between 22 and 29, which is what Flintoff must aspire to.