Andrew Flintoff
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) |
Source: [1], 27 August 2005 | |
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born December 6, 1977, Preston, Lancashire) is an English cricketer and one of the best all-round cricketers in the world. He plays county cricket for Lancashire, where he picked up the nickname "Freddie" or "Fred" due to perceived similarities with Fred Flintstone. Flintoff is is 1.93m (6'4") tall.
Flintoff was captain of the England Under-19 cricket 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 the England cricket team in 1998 against South Africa, after which his early career was hampered by a series of back problems and a tendency to lose his wicket too readily when batting while trying to score runs. He remodelled his bowling action in 2001 and returned to the England team, proving an economical bowler, and also scoring his maiden Test century in 2002. In the 2003 tour of the West Indies, he took five wickets in the test in Barbados, and scored a century in Antigua.
Although injury prevented him from bowling, he was called into the England squad for the 2004 Nat West 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.
In 2004 he was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year and the International Cricket Council's One-day International player of the year. He also became a father for the first time when his fiancée Rachael Wood gave birth to Holly on 16 September.
In the Second Test against Australia at Edgbaston in August 2005, he was made man of the match after 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. In the same game he took a total of 7 wickets (across both innings) and managed all this despite a shoulder injury early in the second innings. England won the game by the narrowest of margins - just 2 runs. England captain Michael Vaughan subsequently dubbed the match "Fred's Test" in honour of Flintoff's achievement.
For his achievements throughout the 2005 Ashes series, which was won by England, he was named as "Man of the Series" by Australian coach, John Buchanan. He also won the inaugural Compton-Miller Medal for outstanding achievement throughout the series.
Trivia
- Andrew's father Colin and brother Chris both played cricket, with Colin still playing.
- Andrew owns a couple of boxer dogs, he calls them Fred and Arnold.
- The highest score of his life is 232 not out for St Anne's (Under 15) Cricket Club against Fordham Broughton, he recalls that "it was a 20 -overs-a-side game, played on an artifical wicket, and I remember getting dropped when I'd scored just six. My opening partner David Fielding scored 60 not out and we got 319 for 0 in 20 overs. You don't forget days like that, whatever the standard you're playing in".