Andrew Flintoff

[NorthCountryBoy]

He was always mentioned in a positive light when he was playing but he never really gets mentioned in a cricketing sense these days and slagging off Atherton in public was not a wise move.

He had an amazing series in 2005 and I remember his red eyes when they went on that parade. Looked like that was the moment where he thought the lad had it made.

Bowled like a demon against SA in 2008. I can't see how too many Stella would have knacked his knee...

 

[chunkyshanhawk53]

Good batsman, great bowler who should have been better and a absolute wanker.

Average batsman. Talented bowler with not enough variation. Inspirational team player.

Lovely bloke (as someone who has met him properly)

 

[smoker]

Just watching the Ashes 2005 on Sky and its a shame with hindsight that he did not kick on. They were rightly waxing lyrical over Freddie at the end because I did think at the end of that series that he was going to be one of the best allrounders in the world. but he fell short

thoughts chaps

If you are overweight and do high impact sport activities, it's only a matter of time before you fuck your knees up. Speaking from experience!

His attitude also sucked as others have said, 2006/7 Ashes were a disgrace.

 

[Steak Pie]

Bowled like a demon against SA in 2008. I can't see how too many Stella would have knacked his knee...

You can't see how being overweight would affect a fast bowler's knees? Really?

Average batsman. Talented bowler with not enough variation. Inspirational team player.

Lovely bloke (as someone who has met him properly)

In the pub, great craic to be around.
At the ground, bad influence and complete waste of time.

There's a very good reason why he hates the ultra-professional Atherton, like any spoiled brat when they are told off.

 

[Aidan11]

Flintoff could have been much better as a cricketer but he liked the sauce too much. Harmy was also with him on many a bender.

 

[The Hunt]

You can't see how being overweight would affect a fast bowler's knees? Really?





In the pub, great craic to be around.
At the ground, bad influence and complete waste of time.

There's a very good reason why he hates the ultra-professional Atherton, like any spoiled brat when they are told off.

I never knew that about Flintoff not being liked in the Cricket World, very interesting. Anyone got more examples of who doesnt like him and why?

Making him captain was a bit of a disaster for him.

 

[johnson]

You can't see how being overweight would affect a fast bowler's knees? Really?





In the pub, great craic to be around.
At the ground, bad influence and complete waste of time.

There's a very good reason why he hates the ultra-professional Atherton, like any spoiled brat when they are told off.

I agree via Flintoff to a degree.

But I don't like Atherton, he was an average batter and a poor leader. When he talks you would assume that he had this great career, he was best of a bad bunch. The way he patronises Collingwood when he used to talk about him and to him, you could tell you thought he was a better player than him, he wasnt, Collingwood got a double hundred in Australia against Warne and Mcgrath. Next.

 

[The Breen Machine]

He could have been a lot better than what he was as he was a hostile bowler capable of bowling long spells, and he had a very natural and textbook batting technique.

He clearly couldn't be arsed off the pitch and to think he was captaining an Ashes team to a whitewash and turning up to training pissed shows how little he must have upstairs, although I do think he believed his own hype way too much after 2005, apparently he said he would only tour in 2006/2007 if he was captain rather than Strauss who had gone a great job that summer.

Seems a bit of a prick these days aswell, trying to be a lad and a bit of a clown to come across well. He could have averaged 40 and 25 with bat and ball in test match cricket but ended up with 5 hundreds and 3 5-fers in 70 tests, to be fair if it wasn't for 2005 no one would really give a shit about him. He would always get out to shit shots and was poor against spin when a bit of work would have sorted him out.

Frustrating bastard.

 

[johnson]

He could have been a lot better than what he was as he was a hostile bowler capable of bowling long spells, and he had a very natural and textbook batting technique.

He clearly couldn't be arsed off the pitch and to think he was captaining an Ashes team to a whitewash and turning up to training pissed shows how little he must have upstairs, although I do think he believed his own hype way too much after 2005, apparently he said he would only tour in 2006/2007 if he was captain rather than Strauss who had gone a great job that summer.

Seems a bit of a prick these days aswell, trying to be a lad and a bit of a clown to come across well. He could have averaged 40 and 25 with bat and ball in test match cricket but ended up with 5 hundreds and 3 5-fers in 70 tests, to be fair if it wasn't for 2005 no one would really give a shit about him. He would always get out to shit shots and was poor against spin when a bit of work would have sorted him out.

Frustrating bastard.

There is no chance IMO he could of done that, even if he had his head screwed on he had too many techincal flaws. He could be destructive but he wasn't really a top order batsman, bit like Watson.

People over hype how much talent he had, fantastic bowler mind, could of taken alot more wickets, but his batting was never up to it.

 

[The Breen Machine]

There is no chance IMO he could of done that, even if he had his head screwed on he had too many techincal flaws. He could be destructive but he wasn't really a top order batsman, bit like Watson.

People over hype how much talent he had, fantastic bowler mind, could of taken alot more wickets, but his batting was never up to it.

He had a better technique that Trescothick and Collingwood for example who both averaged over 40 in test cricket. He had flaws, mainly against spin, but he also was excellent on the front foot at times in both attack and defence - he had one of the best cover drives I've seen.

 

[Mackem DJ]

It was crazy how he made his debut as a number 6/7 who bowled a little military medium - a traditional english allrounder if you will but by the end he was good enough to open the bowling (hitting 90mph +) but his batting had gone to shit & he was barely a number 8.

One of my favourite moments in test cricket ever was when we played South Africa at home, one sunday morning he absolute destroyed a world class attack of Pollock, Ntini, Kallis with the bat T20 style anyone remember what im on about & have the cricinfo link to that test?

 

[The Breen Machine]

It was crazy how he made his debut as a number 6/7 who bowled a little military medium - a traditional english allrounder if you will but by the end he was good enough to open the bowling (hitting 90mph +) but his batting had gone to shit & he was barely a number 8.

One of my favourite moments in test cricket ever was when we played South Africa at home, one sunday morning he absolute destroyed a world class attack of Pollock, Ntini, Kallis with the bat T20 style anyone remember what im on about & have the cricinfo link to that test?

I'm pretty sure it was the Lords test in 2003, we got hammered and he had a swing in a lost cause which came off but we still lost by about 150 runs.

 

[scotch]

His batting suffered from his injuries. He was that good a bowler that he could pick the ball up straight after injury and be back to his best very quickly, however his batting always took time to get back into a groove.

As for his captaincy it is worth remembering that he was brilliant in the India series with a very young England side and got a drawn series.

Average batsman. Talented bowler with not enough variation. Inspirational team player.

Lovely bloke (as someone who has met him properly)

He didn't need it. All he needed to do was bowl that little bit fuller sometimes.

 

[The Breen Machine]

His batting suffered from his injuries. He was that good a bowler that he could pick the ball up straight after injury and be back to his best very quickly, however his batting always took time to get back into a groove.

As for his captaincy it is worth remembering that he was brilliant in the India series with a very young England side and got a drawn series.

He did well in that series and was in good form with both bat and ball, particularly considering that Vaughan, Jones, Strauss and Trescothick were all missing at some point, but he was abysmal as a captain in the following winter's Ashes.

 

[scotch]

He did well in that series and was in good form with both bat and ball, particularly considering that Vaughan, Jones, Strauss and Trescothick were all missing at some point, but he was abysmal as a captain in the following winter's Ashes.

Against India, think he pretty much got a 50 in virtually all his innings against spin.

His captaincy was poor in the Ashes, his ankle was knackered and in all honesty he should probably have only played 3 tests at best given his injury however barring Hoggard's 7 for 119? He was still our best bowler.

Batted very well in sydney and if not for how poor our tail was, would probably have got a 100.

Him and Fletcher didn't get on too well and in terms of England in the long run it was probably for the best that Strauss became captain afterwards. It says alot that Fletcher also said to Strauss that he would thank him one day for not making him captain in the Ashes so what was the point of Fletcher being Coach if he had already given up.

Not saying we would have won that series anyhow Australia were awesome but it wouldn't have been 5-0, 4-0 maybe

 

[The Breen Machine]

Against India, think he pretty much got a 50 in virtually all his innings against spin.

His captaincy was poor in the Ashes, his ankle was knackered and in all honesty he should probably have only played 3 tests at best given his injury however barring Hoggard's 7 for 119? He was still our best bowler.

Batted very well in sydney and if not for how poor our tail was, would probably have got a 100.

Him and Fletcher didn't get on too well and in terms of England in the long run it was probably for the best that Strauss became captain afterwards. It says alot that Fletcher also said to Strauss that he would thank him one day for not making him captain in the Ashes so what was the point of Fletcher being Coach if he had already given up.

Not saying we would have won that series anyhow Australia were awesome but it wouldn't have been 5-0, 4-0 maybe

He batted very well in the India series and led a young team pretty admirably, but I wouldn't get too hyped up about a few 50's on the best batting tracks in the world, although he deserves credit for his all round contribution in that series.

70 odd in a losing cause in the 5th test aye

IIRC Fletcher didn't have a great deal to do with the captaincy issue for that Ashes series, I think he wanted to continue with Strauss, but Flintoff went to Graveney and said he would only go and play 5 tests if he was captain, so the selectors buckled. Can't really argue it did Strauss as favour mind as when they got back the media would have been all over the Flintoff for captain issue.

 

[scotch]

He batted very well in the India series and led a young team pretty admirably, but I wouldn't get too hyped up about a few 50's on the best batting tracks in the world, although he deserves credit for his all round contribution in that series.

70 odd in a losing cause in the 5th test aye

IIRC Fletcher didn't have a great deal to do with the captaincy issue for that Ashes series, I think he wanted to continue with Strauss, but Flintoff went to Graveney and said he would only go and play 5 tests if he was captain, so the selectors buckled. Can't really argue it did Strauss as favour mind as when they got back the media would have been all over the Flintoff for captain issue.

Think it was 86/87 one of our series high points

Biggest shame is that he is in better shape now then when he was playing. Add him into our 1 day team and T20 team now and would argue that we had the best limited overs side in the world. All ifs and buts though.

Wouldn't have a bad word against him in regards to fans having seen him in a T20 for Lancashire up here and he stood in the pouring rain signing autographs and posing for photos for a good 30 minutes. Got a round of applause from all durham members.

 

[smoker]

It was crazy how he made his debut as a number 6/7 who bowled a little military medium - a traditional english allrounder if you will but by the end he was good enough to open the bowling (hitting 90mph +) but his batting had gone to shit & he was barely a number 8.

One of my favourite moments in test cricket ever was when we played South Africa at home, one sunday morning he absolute destroyed a world class attack of Pollock, Ntini, Kallis with the bat T20 style anyone remember what im on about & have the cricinfo link to that test?

He was f***ing fat as well. I mean like Inzamam fat....the transition in 5 or 6 years was amazing.

2005 Ashes will always be his highwater mark. Smashing McGrath and Warne all over the ground. Can't remember which game but there was a bouncer from Brett Lee and he 'fended' it for six.

 

[Wise Man Says]

He was f***ing fat as well. I mean like Inzamam fat....the transition in 5 or 6 years was amazing.

2005 Ashes will always be his highwater mark. Smashing McGrath and Warne all over the ground. Can't remember which game but there was a bouncer from Brett Lee and he 'fended' it for six.

This.

I remember he played against South Africa in 1998 (the series we won) and he looked very big,

He had his moments, notably the 2005 Ashes but largely had an underwhelming career ultimately IMO.

He was never England captaincy material IMO and that pedalo incident in that awful 2007 World Cup (probably the worst tournament ever, especially with Woolmer dying) was embarrassing. Especially as it came on the back of the 5-0.

Whenever I see him interviewed he seems like a decent bloke (for example, he has commented on the darts on Sky and comes over well). However, there are clear doubts about his professionalism when he played and I'd choose a person with the character of Atherton over Flintoff 10 times out of 10.

 

[Mr Redknapp]

This.

I remember he played against South Africa in 1998 (the series we won) and he looked very big,

He had his moments, notably the 2005 Ashes but largely had an underwhelming career ultimately IMO.

He was never England captaincy material IMO and that pedalo incident in that awful 2007 World Cup (probably the worst tournament ever, especially with Woolmer dying) was embarrassing. Especially as it came on the back of the 5-0.

Whenever I see him interviewed he seems like a decent bloke (for example, he has commented on the darts on Sky and comes over well). However, there are clear doubts about his professionalism when he played and I'd choose a person with the character of Atherton over Flintoff 10 times out of 10.

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was carrying a bit of weight like