Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff, is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-order batsman and slip fielder. He was consistently rated by the ICC as being among the top international all-rounders in both ODI and Test cricket.
Following his debut in 1998, Flintoff became an integral player for England and was England's "Man of the Series" in the 2005 Ashes. He later served as both captain and vice-captain of the team. He retired from Test cricket at the end of the 2009 Ashes series and from other forms of the game in 2010. He then had one professional boxing fight on 30 November 2012 in Manchester, beating American Richard Dawson on a points decision. In 2014, Flintoff came out of retirement to play Twenty20 cricket for Lancashire, before being signed by the Brisbane Heat to play in the Australian Big Bash League for the 2014–15 season.
Since his retirement, Flintoff has been involved with numerous projects, including designing his own fashion range and becoming the face of clothing brand Jacamo, winning the first series of the Australian version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and being part of Sky One's sports-based comedy panel show A League of Their Own. Flintoff became a presenter of the BBC One car show Top Gear in 2019, [|remaining with the programme] until he sustained injuries resulting from an accident during filming in late 2022.
Early life
Flintoff was born in Preston, Lancashire, and his father, Colin, was a plumber and factory maintenance worker and the captain of Dutton Forshaw second XI cricket team. Flintoff attended Greenlands Community Primary School and Ribbleton Hall High School. His first trip abroad, at age 14, was to Argentina.During his school days he acquired the nickname "Freddie" due to his surname resembling that of the cartoon character Fred Flintstone.
At Ribbleton Hall, he passed nine GCSEs, but he did not want to stay in education and left school at 16. As a boy, he played cricket for the Lancashire Schools under-11s and under-15s teams and he was also a keen chess player. He then played for two and a half years in the England under-19 cricket team.
Professional career
Early years: criticism, injury and fitness troubles
Flintoff was captain of the England Under-19 team for their "Test" match tour to Pakistan in 1996/7 and at home against Zimbabwe in 1997. He made his Test match debut for England in 1998 against South Africa at Trent Bridge, in a match remembered for its second-innings duel between Mike Atherton and Allan Donald; in a precursor to their subsequent rivalry, Flintoff and Jacques Kallis exchanged wickets. Nonetheless, his struggle to make the grade at county level continued, he found form only intermittently, though often explosively when he did so.In 2000, he hit 135 not out in the quarterfinals of the Natwest Trophy against Surrey, which David Gower described as "the most awesome innings we are ever going to see on a cricket field". In the same year England's management made clear they were unhappy with his fitness and weight, Flintoff responded to his critics with 42 not out in a one-day game against Zimbabwe on his home ground of Old Trafford, forming an explosive second-wicket stand with Graeme Hick; as he collected the Man of the Match award he remarked his performance was "not bad for a fat lad".
Although he lost his England place during 2001, he remodelled his bowling action and gained a place on the 2001–02 tour to India. Though he hit possibly his worst international batting form during the Test series, frustrating him to the point that he broke down in tears in the dressing room at one stage, he later saw the tour as a turning point in his career, specifically the crucial final one-day match. Entrusted with bowling the final over with India needing 11 to win, he ran out Anil Kumble and bowled Javagal Srinath with successive balls to win the match, taking off his shirt in celebration, which was mimicked by Sourav Ganguly in a later match.
Improved consistency, step-up to key international player
In 2002, Flintoff scored his maiden Test century against New Zealand. By 2003, a newer, fitter Flintoff started to justify the comparisons with Botham. Up to the end of 2002, he had averaged just 19 with the bat and 47 with the ball; from 2003 to the end of the 2005 Ashes series, the corresponding figures were 43 and 28. In the summer of 2003 he scored a century and three fifties in the five-Test series against South Africa at home. He continued to play well on the tour of the West Indies in March and April 2004, taking five wickets in the Test in Barbados and scoring a century in Antigua. In early 2004 he was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year.Although injury prevented him from bowling, he was called into the England squad for the 2004 NatWest One Day International Series against New Zealand and the West Indies as a specialist batsman, scoring two consecutive centuries in the series and hitting seven sixes in one innings.
He matched this haul in the Second Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston in July, hitting a first-class best figure of 167. During this innings, watched by a crowd of 20,000, Flintoff hit a six into the top tier of the Ryder Stand. A man stood to claim the catch and dropped it – it was Flintoff's father. Over the course of England's record-breaking summer, he hit a half-century in all seven victorious Tests against New Zealand and the West Indies. On returning to the one-day game as an all-rounder in September he fell agonisingly short of a third one-day century, caught on 99 against India, though he went on to hit a further century in the ICC Champions Trophy 2004 pool match against Sri Lanka two weeks later.
At the end of the season he was named as the inaugural winner of the ICC Award for one-day player of the year and the Professional Cricketers' Association player of the year. He also became a father when his fiancée Rachael Wools gave birth on 6 September. They now have a second child who was born during the series in India in 2006. Flintoff briefly returned home from the tour to see his son for the first time.
2005: Ashes winner
Following the Test series in South Africa in December 2004 and January 2005, Flintoff flew home for surgery on his left ankle, leading to worries he might not regain fitness in time for The Ashes. In fact, following a rehabilitation programme of swimming and hill-walking, he recovered ahead of schedule and was able to return to action for Lancashire in April.In the Second Test against Australia at Edgbaston in August 2005, he broke Ian Botham's 1981 record of six sixes in an Ashes Test Match with five in the first innings and a further four in the second innings; he scored 141 runs in total. In the same game he took a total of seven wickets, including the wickets of Langer and Ponting in his first over in Australia's run-chase. He managed all this despite a shoulder injury early in the second innings. England won the game by just two runs and saved their hopes of regaining the Ashes. Flintoff was named 'Man of the Match' and captain Michael Vaughan subsequently dubbed the match "Fred's Test" in honour of his achievement.
Flintoff scored a century during England's crucial win at Trent Bridge. He took five wickets on the fourth day of the final Test match, enabling England to go off for bad light and helping them eventually to secure a draw and regain the Ashes.
For his achievements throughout the 2005 Ashes series, he was named as "Man of the Series" by Australian coach, John Buchanan. His achievement also won him the inaugural Compton-Miller Medal. He was also awarded the Freedom of the City of Preston.
In October 2005, Flintoff shared the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC player of the year award with Jacques Kallis of South Africa. In December 2005, Flintoff was crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2005, the first cricketer since Botham in 1981. In the New Year's Honours List for 2006, Flintoff was appointed an MBE for his role in the successful Ashes side. In January 2006, Flintoff was presented with the Freedom of the City award for Preston, Lancashire. The award was presented to Flintoff by the mayor of Preston. Other recipients of the award include Sir Tom Finney and Nick Park.
England captaincy
In February 2006 following England captain Michael Vaughan and vice-captain Marcus Trescothick becoming unavailable for the first Test match against India, Flintoff was named captain of the England team and subsequently announced that he would be staying in India for the entire Test series, although he and his wife were expecting their second child. His wife gave birth to a son, Corey, shortly before the second Test on 9 March.On the field, Flintoff was seen as a great success during the drawn series with India, with a 212-run victory in Mumbai. His contributions with both bat and ball ensured that he was named as the player of the series, with many commentators seeing Flintoff as someone who not only worked better under the responsibility but was also viewed as a great influence of an inexperienced side, which included many debutants, such as Alastair Cook, Owais Shah and Monty Panesar. Flintoff amassed four fifties in the series and took 11 wickets, on unfriendly surfaces for seamers. Flintoff continued to captain England during the seven ODIs in India, although he was rested for two matches. Sri Lanka toured in May and England drew the three-Test series 1–1. The series took a heavy toll on Flintoff physically as journalist David Hopps remarked:
A recurrence of his long-term ankle problem in the Test series meant Flintoff missed both the ODI series against Sri Lanka and the first Test against Pakistan. It was later announced in July that Flintoff's rehabilitation had not been sufficient to quell the injury and that further surgery would be required. He was thus ruled out for the entire series against Pakistan. Despite injury concerns, Flintoff was later named for the ICC Champions Trophy, where he played as a specialist batsman, not as an all-rounder.