AUSTRALIAN pace ace Brett Lee is keeping his fingers crossed that Andrew Flintoff is fit for the Ashes - and reckons cricket’s showpiece series won’t be the same if he can’t go for revenge against Lancashire’s talisman.

The 32-year-old Lee is rooting for Flintoff to beat his injury problems and declared: “The Ashes without Freddie would be a poorer event.”

Flintoff will continue his recovery from his latest knee problems tonight in Lancashire’s sold out Twenty20 tie with Leicestershire at Liverpool before playing against Derbyshire on Thursday.

He needs to come through those games to have a realistic chance of making the first Ashes Test, which starts in Cardiff in just 16 days time.

And Lee, who had a gigantic rivalry with Flintoff in the 2005 series as England claimed back the historic urn, wants his old foe on the field in South Wales.

“We don’t want either team to have to use having injured or absent players as an excuse for losing,” said Lee. “I just want England at full strength. I want Flintoff out there.

“He’s had so many injury problems and has battled hard to overcome them and carry on being the player everyone knows he is. But I also want Kevin Pietersen playing. I want to test myself against the best. You need the top bowlers and batsmen fit. I want to beat the best.

“I want packed crowds. I want it to be on again like it was four years ago.

“It’s a special sporting showcase so you need the big guns out there blazing away at each other and the Ashes without Freddie would be a poorer event.”

Lee is determined to see the Ashes stay in the hands of the men in baggy green caps - but says the series in England is the real deal.

“Playing it in England feels like the real Ashes to me,” he said. “There’s all the hype, all the attention, all the theatre.

“It’s going to be tight again and it’s going to be played in the same spirit as 2005. Even though we lost that series it was one of the best and one of the most enjoyable and fun events that I’ve ever been involved in.

“I have great memories of 2005 even if the result went badly. We thrashed England 5-0 last time in Australia but the best cricket was played here.”

Should Flintoff be selected in England’s Ashes squad, which is announced today, then the two Twenty20 Cup fixtures will be his last for Lancashire in this current spell, as the national squad meet up towards the end of the week.

Tonight’s game with Leicestershire will be played out in front of a crowd of 4,500 at Liverpool, the first Twenty20 match played away from Old Trafford. Lancashire will be missing Tom Smith who is out for up to six weeks with a side strain but top order batsman Mal Loye is set to make his 2009 Twenty20 Cup debut in place of Smith.