Freddie - Not bad for a fat lad.

One of the greatest all rounders to every pull on the England shirt is without doubt Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. A character and an inspiration too many young cricketers and team mates alike, he was a player who could draw people through the gate and always had the crowds' attention whether he had the ball or bat in his hand.

His international debut came in 1998 during South Africa's tour of England at Trent Bridge, a game that is more remembered for the duel between Atherton and Donald than anything that Flintoff did; however there where glimpses of the duel that would develop over the next decade as Kallis and Flintoff both exchanged wickets. His time at Lancashire was tough early on; form was rarely consistent, though when he did find form he did with magnificence.

In a Natwest quarter final between Surrey and Lancashire, "Freddie" hit 135 not out, an innings described by David Gower at the time as "the most awesome innings we'll ever see on a cricket field". Yet later this year the England management informed him they where unhappy with his fitness levels and his weight, he answered the critics with a man of the match performance against Zimbabwe scoring 42 not out and upon collecting his award remarked "not bad for a fat lad". He lost his place later that year, but was recalled for the tour to India, a tour he found so difficult he broke down in tears in the dressing room; however he also admits it was a turning point in his career. He specifies the one day match in which he got the winning wicket followed by the infamous shirt celebration. He followed this with his first test match century in 2002.

By 2003 Flintoff had sorted his fitness and weight issues and was like a new player, he was beginning to justify the comparisons with Ian Botham. Prior to 2003 he had averaged 19 with the bat and 47 with the ball, a stark contrast of what was to come as between 2003 and the end of the 2005 Ashes series he averaged 43 and 28 respectively, a superb turn around and one that was only achieved through his own hard work. The South Africa series in 2003 saw the first real run of form, as he scored one century and three fifties in the five match series, his form continued through to the tour of the West Indies where he took a five wicket haul in Barbados and scored a century in Antigua, Wisden then honoured him for his outstanding year naming him the Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2004.

His crowning glory came in 2005 and the home Ashes series. If 1981 were Botham's Ashes, then 2005 were definitely Freds. His desire to win and regain the urn where forever on show; although his sporting side came out when England won the second test at Edgbaston, when he went over to console Brett Lee who had given a sterling effort. The pictures were shown around the world and in a time when sports men are usually in the press for all the wrong reasons, it was good to see something positive.

Sadly this was the last time anyone really saw "Freddie" at his best. Injuries took their toll soon after, and although he was made captain in 2006, his big frame was starting to creak. The injuries came to a head after the Sri Lanka series in May, his long term ankle problem had reared its ugly head meaning that he missed the One Day International series against the Sri Lankans and the opening Test Match against Pakistan, the news followed that further surgery was required. Flintoff was again named captain for the Ashes series in Australia, one that can only be described as a disaster. Not only did England suffer the humiliation of a white wash defeat, they had held the Ashes for the shortest time in history and he had been in charge for the worst Ashes defeat since 1921. The world cup followed the infamous Fredalo incident, he was subsequently stripped of the vice captaincy and suspended for the group game against Canada after Duncan Fletcher said he had given him previous warnings about his behaviour.

Injuries seemed to follow him around everywhere for the next few years. Time and time again a comeback was spoken about, his fitness tests in County Cricket with Lancashire usually resulted in another injury. He finally made his comeback against South Africa and captured his 200th Test Wicket, when he trapped Neil McKenzie LBW for 72. South Africa coach felt that despite Flintoffs consistent bowling performances, he was being too defensive. The years that followed where full of positives, he became only the third England bowler to take a hat-trick in One Day Internationals, and was purchased for $1,550,000 in the first Indian Premier League the highest paid player at the time, although injury cut his tournament short and he was sent home with a knee injury.

The build up to the Ashes series in 2009 was agonizing yet exciting, the questions over his fitness and form soon disappeared after he left several county batsmen with sore ribs and bruised fingers in a game for Lancashire, also scoring a fifty against Hampshire, but still not able to find his first century since the Ashes series of 2005 in either domestic or international cricket. Before the series he announced that he would retire from all formats of the game after the Ashes, He said that "Since 2005 I have just been plagued with injury so I've got the opportunity now to finish on a high by helping England to win the Ashes and it will give me great pleasure if I can play my last Test at the Oval and we can win the Ashes, it doesn't get any bigger than that."

His career certainly did end on a high with England winning the series 2-1 and the Ashes in the process, he captured five wickets in the second test and was given the Man of the Match award, but the most memorable moment of the entire series was his run out of Ricky Ponting. There where no over the top celebrations despite it being a wicket that was desperately needed, instead he stood there, arms aloft and enjoyed the jubilation of the Barmy Army.

When looked back on Andrew Flintoff's career is a complex one. He had great talent but could never find a consistent form to put him up there with the elite of the game. The comparisons to Botham where probably unfair, although similar players and very similar characters, the pressure that put on a young man would have been difficult to endure. I personally, will remember his career as a very good one but not great. He was a player who came up with the big moments when England needed them most, and the run out of Ponting was the biggest of them all.

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	79	130	9	3,845	167	31.77	6,197	62.04	5	26	513	82	52	0
ODIs	141	122	16	3,394	123	32.01	3,821	88.82	3	18	308	93	47	0
T20Is	7	7	1	76	31	12.66	60	126.66	0	0	7	2	5	0
First-class	183	290	23	9,027	167	33.80			15	53			185	0
List A	282	251	28	6,641	143	29.78			6	34			106	0
Twenty20	29	27	3	588	93	24.50	406	144.82	0	3	57	27	16	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4WI	5WI	10WM
Tests	79	137	14,951	7,410	226	5/58	8/156	32.78	2.97	66.10	11	3	0
ODIs	141	119	5,624	4,121	169	5/19		24.38	4.39	33.20	6	2	0
T20Is	7	7	150	161	5	2/23		32.20	6.44	30.00	0	0	0
First-class	183	-	22,799	11,059	350	5/24		31.59	2.91	65.10	4	0
List A	282	-	9,416	6,536	289	5/19		22.61	4.16	32.50	10	2
Twenty20	29	25	525	609	30	4/12		20.30	6.96	17.50	1	0	0

Nice article Hampo.

Can you tell me how you do these spread sheets, do you import them?

To type them out is a little confusing.

Kiwi did mine in the v2journal section Bilt, couldn't work it out either

Thanks for the help.














You're then as useful with this as I am.

Good article

Flintoff's bowling average of 32 may lead future cricket enthusiasts to believe he wasn't that great with the ball but he was a damn fine bowler and pretty good bat.

Very good player and great entertainer.

Good article hampo.

There is a lot of love and affection for Freddie. Always played with a smile on his face and always in the spirit of the game. Some of his off-field antics yes didn't carry many favours, but he was a match winner. It is such a shame that injuries blighted his career.

I agree that form 2003-2006 we saw the best of Freddie and what he had to offer. I guess comparisons were always going to be made with him and Botham given how similar they are, larger than life characters on and off the field, played with a similar intensity and flair.

When you drill down to the stats, you are amazed somewhat that they are not as a impressive as they some of his performances were. Some use this as stick to beat him with if fans rate him so highly.

For me he was a player you couldn't keep your eye off and should've achieved much more for the talent he had.

See below for a (cut down) version of what the table looks like in Excel - once you've got it looking like that you copy and paste.

You need the "table border" and "/table" to start and finish, "tr" and "/tr" to start and end a row, and "td" and "/td" to start and end a cell.

Spoiler:

Undoubtedly a player with a special amount of talent, but there's always the nagging doubt that he did not quite fulfil his potential. As the article highlights, it took Fred a few years to really find his best form at Test level, especially with the bat, and sadly his peak was curtailed by injuries (while his size probably didn't help, he always had a fundamental flaw in how his feet landed in his bowling stride, putting a lot of pressure on his left ankle in particular - something that should have been coached out of him well before he reached the international arena).

The oddity is that while he was considered a fine bowler and a pretty good batsman (his position varying between 6 and 8 in the order tells you much about his batting), in 79 Tests he averaged fewer than 3 wickets per match and only took 5 wickets in an innings 3 times - the stats don't appear to be those of a match winning player, but we know from watching that this is exactly what he was at his best.

Kiwireddevil wrote:See below for a (cut down) version of what the table looks like in Excel - once you've got it looking like that you copy and paste.

You need the "table border" and "/table" to start and finish, "tr" and "/tr" to start and end a row, and "td" and "/td" to start and end a cell.

Spoiler:

So kiwi, you copy the cells from here onto your excel and then when finished you copy and paste it back here?

Nice one, mate.

Interesting article. Certainly always felt there was more to come from Flintoff with the bat, though his bowling was England's most fearsome weapon for some time. Certainly a bowling all-rounder in the latter half of his career, and one of the most dangerous in the world with the ball in hand.

A hero of English cricket.

biltongbek wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:See below for a (cut down) version of what the table looks like in Excel - once you've got it looking like that you copy and paste.

You need the "table border" and "/table" to start and finish, "tr" and "/tr" to start and end a row, and "td" and "/td" to start and end a cell.

Spoiler:

So kiwi, you copy the cells from here onto your excel and then when finished you copy and paste it back here?

That's the one. In this case I had to do a text->columns and tidy up a little in Excel before adding all the [] columns. If I'm creating my own table I set it up in Excel first.

http://v2journal.com/andrew-flintoff-not-bad-for-a-fat-lad.html

"Freddie - Not bad for a fat lad."

It is interesting that Flintoff was actually a slim lad when he first appeared on Sky Sports cameras during the 1995 ODI match between a very fine England U-19 team and a South African U-19 team.

It is the intangible things you cannot see in statistics which made Freddie the player he was. Nearly 4000 runs and over 200 wickets is a decent return but it does not do his performances the justice he deserves.

He was a partnership breaker. He took the important wickets at the important moments. He scored the quick-fire 50s to swing the momentum. He filled those around him with confidence and lifted the performance of the side. He made opposing batsmen and bowlers fear him. These things cannot be recorded in statistical form.

Another factor is that often, especially later in his career, his bowling was almost too good to take an enormous volume of wickets. Balls were often so good that a batsman had no chance of getting anywhere close to it.

Injuries were cruel but the short amount of time he spent at the top makes the good times all the more memorable.

Well put jeff

jeffwinger wrote:It is the intangible things you cannot see in statistics which made Freddie the player he was. Nearly 4000 runs and over 200 wickets is a decent return but it does not do his performances the justice he deserves.

He was a partnership breaker. He took the important wickets at the important moments. He scored the quick-fire 50s to swing the momentum. He filled those around him with confidence and lifted the performance of the side. He made opposing batsmen and bowlers fear him. These things cannot be recorded in statistical form.

Another factor is that often, especially later in his career, his bowling was almost too good to take an enormous volume of wickets. Balls were often so good that a batsman had no chance of getting anywhere close to it.

Injuries were cruel but the short amount of time he spent at the top makes the good times all the more memorable.

I think the problem England had with Flintoff most of the time was where should he bat in the batting order. He wasn't actually good enough to play as one of the top 6 batsmen so he came in at number 7 or even 8 (the ideal position for him - like Stuart Broad's current batting position as he could just play his style of innings without any of the pressures that he would have had he came in higher up the batting order).

Fredye averaged 32 with the ball, his batting average didn't reach the 50 mark. but I don't care, Andrew Fredye Flintoff was, is, will be one of my most favorit cricketing heros!. I had followed test cricket in different parts of the world for more than 15 years now, and India my country has always been my favorit side. But Its Fredye Flintoff who made England my equal favorit. Steve Waugh's Australians played and won test cricket by playing an attacking game. But Fredye Flintoff went ahead and showed attacking cricket can be played even while you don't behave like a pack of dogs on the cricket field, and in fact it can be the theatre of some fine human qualities that go beyond the sport as such. Or perhaps it is something the game had embodied in its spirit, and showed through such a modern player, it has had a transforming impact.
I missed Shane Warne when he retired, and in fact this was one of the reasons I watched the IPL. Anil Kumble, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, all evoke similar feelings, but Fredye's case is special in that regard.
People called him a self-promoter and many other things, but Andrew Flintoff will always remain an absolutely fine cricketer and a mighty fine human being as far as I am concerned.
Whether he was great or just very good, whether he was better than Ian Botham, none of it matters.

i love freddie- one of our best ever players, avergae only were it is due to his first few years and then he was pluged with injury- but at his peak i honestly cant think of a better all rounder- his bowling was insanely good and so was his batting. and waht a top bloke an all!

hampo171 wrote:One of the greatest all rounders to every pull on the England shirt is without doubt Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff. A character and an inspiration too many young cricketers and team mates alike, he was a player who could draw people through the gate and always had the crowds' attention whether he had the ball or bat in his hand.

In a Natwest quarter final between Surrey and Lancashire, "Freddie" hit 135 not out, an innings described by David Gower at the time as "the most awesome innings we'll ever see on a cricket field". Yet later this year the England management informed him they where unhappy with his fitness levels and his weight, he answered the critics with a man of the match performance against Zimbabwe scoring 42 not out and upon collecting his award remarked "not bad for a fat lad". He lost his place later that year, but was recalled for the tour to India, a tour he found so difficult he broke down in tears in the dressing room; however he also admits it was a turning point in his career. He specifies the one day match in which he got the winning wicket followed by the infamous shirt celebration. He followed this with his first test match century in 2002.

I saw that innings - awesome indeed. Heavily influences my view that he seriously under performed against his batting potential over the years.....

He was the sort of player that could have a mediocre game himself but change the game by lifting the spirits of his teamates - Great ODI player, good in test aswell, beyond doubt great in his short but entertaining peak in test cricket - didn't last long enough to be regarded as a Legend in the Game - A player I will remember for the rest of my life no doubt

Certainly a legend in my eyes- real shame he was hit with injuries- the gaza of cricket in that respect