I grew up on football stories. My dad would tell tales of the shenanigans, politics and parties football had to offer. His brother played for Sunderland and I would hear accounts of the trials and tribulations of players trying to organise benefit matches or testimonials which seemed to be all that a professional footballer in the late fifties and early sixties could expect to look forward to in terms of retirement funding. They seemed to me to be unpredictable affairs depending on the popularity of the player.

I mention this only as a prelude to a piece of information I found intriguing when reading of Andrew Flintoff’s expected return from this, his benefit year. £3,000,000 has been suggested as a realistic expectation for the current Mr Popularity. I am not surprised.

What does surprise me is that Freddie’s projected income from his benefit year will be a record breaking amount second only to a certain Mr Dermot Reeve who pulled in a purported £800,000 during his own benefit season.

Don’t get me wrong, Reeve was a good cricketer, but do his benefit earnings match his merit as a player? It would seem as though a players commercial acumen rather than sporting prowess is still what determines their benefit value.