Icons of sport: Freddie Flintoff
It's time to explore another sporting icon.
This time it's Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.
He 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, a 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, he became an integral player for England. A few years later, Flintoff and a few players became cricket icons across England and Wales.
2005 Ashes series
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 (across both innings), 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. After a dramatic series, England finally regained the Ashes and Flintoff became a sporting icon.
Flintoff was named 'Man of the Match' and captain Michael Vaughan subsequently dubbed the match "Fred's Test" in honour of his achievements on that magical summer in 2005. Things would never be the same again.
Later cricket career
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 Brisbane Heat to play in the Australian Big Bash League for the 2014–15 season.
After Retirement
Since his retirement, Flintoff has been involved with numerous projects, including designing his fashion range and becoming the face of the 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 show Top Gear in 2019.
Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams
This series focused on Flintoff returning to his hometown of Preston intending to create a brand-new cricket team with a group of promising teens. Freddie hopes to inspire a new generation to play cricket, and prove that anyone can play the sport, regardless of their background.
One viewer posted on Facebook: "I'm no fan of the sport but this was a wonderful programme. Well done Freddie!"