England is toying with the idea of sending star all rounder Andrew Flintoff out to Australia to play club cricket as a way to ready him for this summer's Ashes series.
Flintoff is currently been struggling with an ankle injury and with minor surgery on the cards, England's chairman of selectors David Graveney said a good way for his side's star player to get some match-fitness before the Ashes series would be to send him down under to play for a club side at the beginning of the southern hemisphere's cricket season.
"We're investigating areas in which our injured players, including Freddie, can play cricket," Graveney said during and interview with the BBC.
"South Africa is one, Australia is another."
Australians have a long tradition of playing English League and county cricket but to have one of the main spearhead's of the opposition playing club cricket in Australia just before an Ashes series is something Australians are not used to.
Cricket Australia (CA) did not rule out the idea, saying any decision to send Flintoff to a club side would be between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the relevant state association.
"It's a hypothetical situation. We haven't been approached and it's an area that would be looked at by the state associations," a CA spokesman said.
"There are no statutes that we are aware of that would prevent it from being possible."
Australian club cricket usually gets underway in early October, with the English touring party to play its first match, against the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra, on November 10. This would give Flintoff a good six to eight weeks to prepare for the first Ashes Test at the Gabba in Brisbane from November 23-27.
