Freddie savours Ashes triumph
"It is actually quite a nice time for me to finish," said Flintoff.
"The kids are coming to an age where they need their dad around and I am going to be there for that. Bittersweet as it is having to finish Test cricket through injury the one thing I am excited about is being at home.
"I am not going to get people shouting 'Super Fred' when I am doing the school run. However, for me that is far more important than peeling a few down in a Test match."
"One of the things the crowd identify with is that if I was not on the field I would be sat next to them," he said.
"I would be in the thick of the 'Barmy Army' with a pint and singing away with the rest of them."
"I have never achieved greatness and I don't profess to," he said.
"I was asked have you been a great cricketer and the obvious answer is no. That's the Bothams, the Sobers, the Imran Khans, the Tendulkars, the Ricky Pontings who achieved greatness over a long period of time, playing Test after Test after Test.
"I have performed at times and I am proud to have done that. For the bulk of my career I have played through pain and with injury so to be out on the field was an achievement in some ways - but as for greatness? Nah.
"But I played in a team which performed and I'm sat here now happy with myself and proud."
Flintoff said: "Don't put your mortgage on it."
"I'm probably not going to get in my house 25,000 people chanting my name," he said.
"But whatever you do on the cricket field is one thing. Being able to face yourself in the mirror every day and say 'You're not a bad egg' that is far more important. As a bloke I hope not to be regarded as a bad 'un."
Tags: Simon Katich , Australia , Test , Sydney , Board , Rickey Ponting , Shah , Cook , Swann , England
