London, April 29: England captain Andrew Strauss said it was wrong to criticise Andrew Flintoff for playing in the Indian Premier League after the all-rounder sustained a knee injury ahead of an Ashes series.

Flintoff underwent on Tuesday what the England and Wales Cricket Board said was "successful" keyhole surgery on his right knee after the hero of England’s 2005 Ashes win injured himself playing for the Chennai Super Kings in South Africa.

England cricket chiefs are confident the 31-year-old Flintoff will be fit in time for June’s World Twenty20 tournament, which England are hosting, and the subsequent Ashes series against Australia.

Given Flintoff’s lengthy history of injuries, and the fact he is on an England central contract which ought to give the national management some control over where and when he plays, the decision to let him take part in the IPL was controversial from the start. Ex-England captain Nasser Hussain accused the likes of Flintoff of wanting to "have their cake and eat it". But Strauss, speaking after making 150 for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Southgate in an innings where Australia rising star Philip Hughes was unbeaten on 99, was sympathetic towards Flintoff’s plight.

"I don’t think he had a niggle when he went to be fair, it developed while he was over there," Strauss said. "It’s a tricky situation, but you can get injured anywhere, whether he was playing in the IPL or for Lancashire (Flintoff’s county), you can’t control that particularly."

— AFP