It will not involve a welcome mat or what are known in these parts as felicitations. When the England captain goes out to bat today in the unfamiliar position of No 3 it will be to face an attack ready to unleash their own Antipodean brand of fury. Everybody involved has by now declared that the Champions Trophy Group A match – a more or less must-win affair for both sides if they wish to progress – will have no bearing on the Ashes. Nobody should suppose this extends as far as not trying to undermine Flintoff.
The intention will be to get at Flintoff early and expose what might all too easily be England’s soft underbelly. It was always a risk putting Flintoff at three, especially as he has been so dramatically potent lower down the order against the older, softer ball and, whatever the reasons, it was possible to sense that bowlers felt the advantage had shifted towards them.The match may also depend on other factors Not the least of these is how England use the new ball. Not the most common is the fact that the Hindu festival of Diwali is taking place today and fireworks are expected to be heard loud and clear throughout the match, prompting the Australia captain, Ricky Ponting, to quip that he had sent out his team to buy gas masks.But Australia have spent much of the past 140 years attempting to dismantle England captains, and now is as good a time as any to start with Flintoff.

The challenge from Britain is completed by Park Hill Stakes winner Rising Cross and Frank Sonata.The gathering pace of the domestic jumps season continues tomorrow as exciting chaser Kauto Star makes his seasonal debut at Aintree in the Old Roan Chase. The six-year-old has not run since his early fall as favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase and will be trying two and a half miles with a view to a run in the King George VI Chase.. “He hasn’t been down to sit on him, but Frankie hadn’t either before he won on him for the first time, so I’m not too worried.”Sergeant Cecil, going for a four-timer, will have 10 rivals at Longchamp, including his immediate Cadran victim Shamdala. Moore replaces Frankie Dettori, who gave the gelding one of the rides of the season in the Prix du Cadran at the Paris track on Arc day. The Italian will be on duty for Godolphin in Italy, where he partners Picatvia in the Premio Lydia Tesio.
“I’m sure Ryan will be a good substitute,” said the gelding’s trainer Rod Millman. Champion jockey-elect Ryan Moore will partner Sergeant Cecil for the first time when the rags-to-riches seven-year-old goes for his second Group One success in tomorrow’s Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp. The Horris Hill Stakes is not a race that usually impacts significantly on the greater scheme of things, but Desert Dew (2.05) and Mythical Kid both look youngsters with a future.The St Simon Stakes presents Dragon Dancer with yet another opportunity to shed his dread “best-maiden-in-training” tag, but yet again he may find one or two too good, principally, and perhaps fairly insultingly, the progressive bumper winner Alfie Flits (2.40).Chris McGrathNap: Eagle Mountain (Newbury 3.15)NB: Massini’s Maguire (Chepstow 1.25).

On his last run the son of Golan proved, in retrospect, to have been flying particularly high; when he took second spot in a valuable sales-related race at the Curragh, he had one top filly, Miss Beatrix, in front and another, Finsceal Beo, a few places behind.But the best of the home side may prove to be the Barry Hills-trained Thousand Words, who put his disappointing performance in the Champagne Stakes behind him with a smooth success on soft ground at Newmarket three weeks ago.By another up-and-coming young stallion, Dansili, the Khaled Abdullah colour-bearer is another who will benefit from a test of stamina.With the main event transferred from its traditional home Doncaster, where the builders are in, Newbury’s own end-of-term features take second billing. Both he and Eagle Mountain and indeed their stablemate Malacara, are running for the usual Coolmore stallion agenda as well as glory on the day. All three are from the first crop of Rock Of Gibraltar, and a Group One success at the first time of asking looks good on a young stallion’s cv.The ability to gallop in a bog is going to be crucial this afternoon and another who has already shown he can is Regime, from the Michael Bell stable that supplied Motivator. Brian Boru had chased home Alamshar in the Irish race.So the red route from Co Tipperary is not foolproof, but it may be today. Eagle Mountain (Newbury, 3.15) gave Teofilo a terrible fright at the Curragh, going down by only a head, before very nearly catching Vital Equine in another seven furlong contest, the Champagne Stakes at York.

In the Beresford he showed his appreciation of being stepped up to a mile, and also that the sort of testing ground he will encounter today holds no fears.O’Brien has three times had a one-two in this race (Powercourt ran second to Brian Boru) and Red Rock Canyon, though still a maiden, looks the next likeliest of the Ballydoyle quartet. The colt, only a neck behind Teofilo when both made their debuts, is a half-brother, out of Oaks winner Imagine, to ill-fated Horatio Nelson. Four of them hail from the yard with the best recent record and one of them, the likely favourite Eagle Mountain, is treading a familiar road after running away with the Beresford Stakes at the Curragh 13 days ago.Aidan O’Brien has won four of the last nine runnings of the Racing Post Trophy, with Brian Boru four years ago, High Chaparral the year before that, Aristotle in 1999 and Saratoga Springs in 1997. Of his four Beresford winners to compete at Doncaster, Saratoga Springs won both races and three finished runner-up in the second: Lermontov (to Aristotle), Castle Gandolfo (to High Chaparral) and Albert Hall, to Motivator two years ago. Environmental campaigners point out that importing apples is responsible for pollution generated by transporting fruit around the world. The Gobi desert is spreading at a rate of 4,000 square miles a year, forcing Chinese peasants to abandon their land.

Your words are deemed to be “privileged”, therefore absolving you from any unpleasant legal repercussions.Exactly the same is true of the witness box in a court of law. I have myself experienced the heady feeling when giving evidence of complete freedom to say whatever I liked about certain of my fellow human beings. What’s more, your remarks, whether in Parliament or in court, can be printed in the paper the following day and nothing can be done to stop it.With the trend to curb our freedom I am not sure if this is any longer the case. We already have a situation when a growing number of people cannot be named “for legal reasons” – though these reasons are seldom spelled out.This week Lord Campbell-Savours, a member of the House of Lords, named a woman who had repeatedly made false accusations of rape which had resulted in a man being unjustly imprisoned.