ANDREW FLINTOFF shoes are undoubtedly big ones to fill.

The talismanic all-rounder plans to retire from Test cricket after next week’s Ashes decider at the Oval due to persistent knee problems.

Hopefully he will make his bow with a match-winning display but either way his departure will leave a massive void in the England side which the selectors must fill.

Top class all-rounders like a Botham or a Flintoff only come around once in a generation but another might just be about to roll off the production line in the shape of Luke Wright.

Wright has been talked about as a star in the making but he is showing signs of finally fulfilling his huge potential this season – and the timing could prove perfect.

He has already broken into the England one-day and Twenty20 squad thanks to his explosive batting in the shorter formats of the game but is now showing the kind of maturity needed for Test cricket.

The 24-year-old averages 57 in first class cricket for Sussex this season and has scored two centuries in recent weeks to ensure the selectors do not forget about him.

More importantly, though, Wright looks a much-improved bowler this year and has been able to control the aggression which is his main weapon.

His second five-wicket haul of the season against Worcestershire at Hove this week took his tally for the season to 19 in the Championship and although he is no Flintoff with the ball yet, he is developing into a promising first change bowler.

If he can continue to improve this season and puts in some eyecatching performances in the forthcoming ODI and T20 series against Australia and then the Champions Trophy he could well take Flintoff’s place for the tour of South Africa in the winter.

l IF IT ain’t broke don’t fix it is a maxim that does not appear to interest the high-ups at the ECB.

They were probably too busy chewing over the bones of England’s Headingley debacle to notice that at Horsham on Sunday, what could be the last 40-over game at Cricketfield Road, attracted an audience of nearly 4,000 – a mixture of families and cricket buffs enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon in a quintessentially English setting.

Meanwhile, down at Taunton, 8,000 crammed in for the Pro40 between Somerset and Yorkshire.

If the power brokers at Lord’s had taken a straw poll at both venues they would surely have found that people like 40-over cricket in its current format and that many have been attracted to it through watching Twenty20.

Now we are faced with the prospect of 40 overs becoming two innings of 20 with declarations. What is all that about?

Answers on a postcard to Giles Clarke, c/o ECB, Lord’s.