Sport 14-01-2005 who: England cricket team what: Take risk on Flintoff`s fitness for fourth Test where: Johannesburg when: This week snippet: The Independent`s Angus Fraser expressed his "severe doubts" on Thursday that Freddie`s body would be up to bowling a full 40 overs, remarking that "he looked far from convincing" in the nets after tearing a muscle in his left side during the third Test days earlier. In other cricket news, The Telegraph reports that "the famous 90ft lime tree at Kent County Cricket Club`s Canterbury ground" has fallen victim to "a combination of heart-wood fungus and a howling westerly gale". Reporters David Sapsted and Ben Fenton explain the special rules at the ground which will now apply to just a seven-foot stump. "Any ball hitting any part of the tree was signalled as a four, even if it would otherwise have gone over the ropes for six, and no batsman could be caught off the rebound." [... more]

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