Ten days to go until the Ashes finally start and, as the cliché has it, that’s when the talking finally stops. In Australia’s case, literally. Who’d have thought that a team so accomplished in the dark arts of sledging that a toboggan would be a more appropriate national crest than a kangaroo would be banned by their own cricket board from verbally abusing the opposition? Merv Hughes’ moustache, from which the words “Pommy” and “bastard” were rarely slow to emerge, will probably be incinerated, placed in an urn and put on display in the MCG pavilion.

The ban will amuse the England players no end, not least Andrew Flintoff, who has a recent Q&A evening out there on YouTube in which he finally reveals what he said in that apparent moment of high chivalry at Edgbaston in 2005, when he bent down to have a word with a disconsolate Brett Lee. “It was just one of those spur of the moment things,” Flintoff tells his audience. “I just leant over and whispered in his ear . . . ‘It’s 1-1, you Australian bastard’.”

Except that’s not really what he said. “It changes according to the audience on the after-dinner circuit,” chuckled Flintoff. “I can’t remember precisely what I said, but it was something along the lines of, ‘Hard luck mate, great effort’. You want to win but we’re not at each other’s throats half as much as people might think. Things can blow up every now and then but I reckon there’s far nastier stuff going on in a Sunday afternoon club game.”

Flintoff has not been shy of engaging opponents in verbal warfare — his eyeball to eyeball confrontation with Michael Clarke in 2005 prompted the umpire to step in — but he also has enough first-hand experience of the process backfiring to suspect that the Australian ban might have as much to do with trying to enhance performance as image.

“My only real success was with Tino,” said Flintoff, referring to the time he goaded the West Indian tailender Tino Best into getting himself stumped, “but there have been quite a few failures. I got stuck into Yuvraj [Singh] during the first Twenty20 World Cup and annoyed him so much he hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over. Then there was Shoaib [Akhtar] in Pakistan. I told him he looked like Tarzan but bowled like Jane, so he spent the next three Tests bowling us out. It’s a good example of the old adage: only sledge if you think it will make a difference.”

The question now is whether Flintoff, in sledging mode or otherwise, will be fit and available to take on the Australians this summer. So far, the portents, albeit in his case accompanied by an obligatory crossing of the fingers, are good.

At least according to Dave Roberts, Lancashire’s head physiotherapist. “Fred worked incredibly hard when we went off for a week in Portugal recently. He’s physically very fit and all he needs is cricket hardening, which he can only get now by playing.”

Flintoff is equally optimistic. “If I didn’t think I could get back playing as I’ve done in the past, I couldn’t have found the motivation to go through all this recovery stuff again. I’m still only 31 and didn’t really start bowling until I was 25 and I certainly don’t feel I’ve lost any pace. I’m due a bit of luck, I think, and all being well I’ll soon be steaming in flat-out like I always do.”

That’s the thing with Flintoff. He has two gears, flat-out and even more flat-out. He won’t let go of the ball, which, in some people’s view, is at the root of his injury problems.

“I hear the argument about trying to bowl more within myself, but if I do cut down on pace I lose control, I’m not nearly as effective and, most importantly, I don’t enjoy it as much. If I’m fit to bowl, I bowl full-on. I don’t know how to do it any other way.”

England’s Ashes prospects will be considerably enhanced with a fully fit Flintoff bowling at full throttle but he’s also, he says, “desperate” to recapture consistent form with the bat. His 93 off 41 balls in a Twenty20 game for Lancashire on Thursday was encouraging, though in Test cricket his batting has recently become more reminiscent of his early career, when technique and temperament were often exposed.

Interestingly, Flintoff still regards himself as a batsman who bowls rather than the other way around. When Justin Langer, who described his bowling in the 2005 series as the best he had ever faced, recently suggested England should bat him no higher than No 8, Flintoff was not pleased.

“Early in my career I was regarded as more of a batsman than a bowler and I still see myself that way. Scoring runs actually gives me more pleasure and satisfaction than taking wickets but all the stop-start cricket I’ve had because of the injuries has affected my batting more than my bowling. I’m confident it’ll come right again and on a personal level the next Test century of my career will be more rewarding than a five-for.”

That comment will raise a few eyebrows, albeit not quite as many as he did by going off to play in the Indian Premier League when he had fitness issues. Flintoff, though, remains unrepentant. “I’d be lying if I said the money wasn’t a factor, it was. And the way it turned out definitely wasn’t ideal. But I honestly felt that playing with the likes of Dhoni, Hayden and others could only be of benefit. I would just as likely have broken down playing for Lancashire. I’ve got a clear conscience on that one.”

There have been various statistics promoted recently to show that England without Flintoff have not suffered in the results department but the only people in England at the moment hoping he doesn’t figure in the Ashes are wearing baggy green caps. And the swearing ban (at least among themselves) will be temporarily lifted if England’s talisman does play.

“There are new faces on both sides,” said Flintoff, “in which case I don’t think 2005 will have any bearing on what will happen this time, any more than 2006-07. In 2005 we had a team capable of taking on Australia, while in 2006-07, if I’m honest, we didn’t. But this year, yes, we have a good chance. It would be an unbelievable achievement to do it again, and in many ways, much more fun this time.”

So does more fun mean double the celebrations if they do win? Flintoff, whose bowling in 2005 was positively medium-paced next to his celebrating, smiled. “I’m a bit older now,” he said, indicating that his days of falling off pedestals, not to mention pedalos, were now behind him.

- Andrew Flintoff is an ambassador for Sure Men Sport