Take a break Freddie, warns Botham

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — England legend Ian Botham warned his successor as the country's best all-rounder Andrew Flintoff to skip this autumn's controversial ICC Champions Trophy.

Botham insists that Flintoff should take a break from the game towards the end of the year, instead of going to India, to prepare for the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007.

He also believes the player should join him on his next cancer charity walk.

Flintoff already has a busy 2006 ahead of him with home Test matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and then the defence of the Ashes in the winter.

"I don't know what the ICC Champions Trophy is all about. Slotting it in five months before the World Cup is beyond me," Botham said on Thursday.

"I think it's greed taking over from...