In the days when getting “Freddied” was an acceptable part of being a lovable rogue, Stephen Harmison famously topped off his post-Ashes revelry by scrawling “tw*t” on his friend’s forehead. Now, with the world and his dog rushing to pour water on a man who risked a postpedalo drowning, the fast bowler has launched the case for Andrew Flintoff’s defence.

Harmison questioned the decision to strip Flintoff of his vice-captaincy in the wake of Friday’s trip to a nightclub and gave warning that the team could pay the price. “I think it could come back to haunt England,” he said. “If Michael Vaughan gets injured, then we’re in trouble.

“I think it [the punishment] is harsh. People have to remember the players are human beings and they let off steam. If they are guilty of anything, it is bad timing, but it’s a small mistake. I hope Andrew gets to captain the side again one day because I know how much it means to him.”

Although it has emerged that Vaughan wanted Flintoff reprimanded, Harmison believes that Flintoff has become his successor as the scapegoat for England’s ills and launched an attack on media hypocrites. “I didn’t enjoy any of the [2006-07] Ashes and admit I didn’t play well,” he said. “I was probably ready for the first Test, but I didn’t just get my share of flak, I got a few others’, too. Now it’s Fred’s turn.

“The worst thing is the ex-players. They cashed in on cricket mania that followed 2005 and now they’re sticking the boot in. They are just doing it for personal gain.”

Flintoff’s love of a drink was legend in his Madchester days, when a night out would start at 2 in the afternoon, but the knees-up that followed the Ashes 2005 drew little criticism. Chubby Chandler, his agent, said at the time: “All it shows is that Freddie having a drink isn’t a story any more.”

Since then the pendulum has swung, the pedalo has capsized and England’s errant losers have been turned in by their own fans. This is the flip side to success, the heightened expectations and the risk of a violent fall. The nadir of the 2006-07 Ashes, documented in Ashes Frontline, a book Harmison has written with Justin Langer, the former Australia batsman, took its toll on the bowler, but he was not the only one to suffer.

“I was a scapegoat and some of the stick was vicious,” Harmison said. “The abuse Duncan Fletcher got was a disgrace, too. He’s been the best thing that’s happened to English cricket for ten years, but it was like the stuff the England football coach gets.”

Certainly the rise and fall of the England side has been swift and seismic, and Harmison thinks too many people took their slice of Ashes pie. “On that first day at the Oval in 2005, we could have sold 200,000 tickets, but the ground was full of actors and pop stars, people who wouldn’t know one end of a cricket bat from the other,” he said. “That saddened me. Everyone was there for a photo opportunity. We went along with it, but the players did not overcelebrate.”

Nor, he thinks, did they overcommiserate on Friday. “At the end of a day’s cricket you come off with a massive adrenalin rush,” Harmison said. “Some people sit in the corner with a glass of water and some like a beer, but the idea that there is a drinking culture in cricket is garbage.” Similarly, the idea that Harmison has an attitude problem is “b*****ks”. That he is donating his royalties to Bubble Foundation UK, a charity for children born without an immune system, provides a dose of perspective to the case of the Freddied Six.

Harmison, meanwhile, will jet out to Cape Town on a preseason tour with Durham to prove his worthiness of an England place. After the purgatory of Australia, from first torrid ball to last, and his retirement from one-day internationals, his enthusiasm is back. “We’ve not suddenly become a bad side,” he said. “These things can make you stronger because there’s only one way to go.”

Fading fasts

17: Wickets taken in 12 one-day internationals by Stephen Harmison since the 2005 Ashes, at an average of almost 37

26: Wickets taken in the same period by Andrew Flintoff, but in 26 games at 34

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