Interview

My favourite Flintoff moment

Cricinfo asks cricketers and journalists to pick their favourite Andrew Flintoff moments

The 2005 Ashes will remain Andrew Flintoff's greatest career highlight  •  Getty Images

The 2005 Ashes will remain Andrew Flintoff's greatest career highlight  •  Getty Images

Adam Gilchrist - Former Australia wicketkeeper
A lot of people would talk about 2005 and the effect he had on the series in general. Everywhere I looked in that season he was there everywhere; every time I batted he seemed to bowl and generally I got roughed both in Tests and ODIs; he was on the billboards, he was ever-present in the newspapers; he got inside the mind so much that one night when I went to say good night to my wife I saw Andrew Flintoff! What I really liked about him was his work ethic: in The Oval Test in that series, on the fourth day, he bowled about 14 overs on the trot starting in the first session and carried past lunch. That showed how desperate he was to win. Then I loved the way he celebrated the Ashes victory as I've always been one to celebrate well, too.
Matthew Hoggard - Former England team-mate
My favourite Fred moment came during an Under-19 game in Zimbabwe. We were playing a Test in Bulawayo of all places, and we were struggling to get wickets. At that time, Fred had been told he couldn't bowl because he was suffering from spine curvature in his back, but Bumble [David Lloyd], the coach, told us to put Fred on anyway. He bowled about four overs, got five wickets and he bowled freaking rapid. That was Fred through and through. He wasn't supposed to bowl, he did bowl, and he didn't look back.
Micky Arthur - South Africa coach
The moment for me was the spell he bowled against us at Edgbaston last year - it was phenomenal. For those eight overs he bowled, he captivated the audience to such an extent that it became the Freddie Flintoff show. Only he had the ability to do that. Whenever he bowled you felt something would happen and hence our guys had a huge amount of respect for him.
Sourav Ganguly - Former India captain
The thing about playing against Andrew Flintoff was he kept coming at you. I always felt he was a better bowler than a batsman. I remember the NatWest Series final distinctly where even though we won, we had to actually play out of our skins to get past him. He was young then and kept getting better from there. On the field he was a huge competitor, played with a lot of passion for England, someone who improved consistently since the Lancashire days when I saw him for the first time. My only disappointment is he could have achieved a bit more with the talent he had, but injuries robbed him of that.
Dale Steyn - South Africa fast bowler
I never really played much against him, so I really can't speak much about his skills. But I do remember he was quite a crowd-pleaser. I didn't play the Test match at Edgbaston in 2008, as I had a broken hand but the distinct memory was that each time he turned to ball the crowd lit up.
Michael Henderson - Veteran broadsheet columnist
My favourite Flintoff memory was the final Test of 2005 at The Oval, when he pounded in on that Sunday, determined that England should take a first-innings lead when it seemed Australia might move ahead. It was an act of considerable physical courage actually, with England needing to draw the game to win the Ashes, and he ended up with his second Test five-for. The crowd could sense that here was someone playing with heart and soul, and it reminded me of Ian Botham in 1981. Everyone forgets the final Test of that summer, also at The Oval, when he bowled something like 80 overs in the game for ten wickets, running in and in and in, as if to say 'we may have won the series, but it hasn¹t ended yet, and I'm going to play my heart out until it does.' In both instances, it was the end of a glorious summer.
Stephen Brenkley - The Independent correspondent
My favourite Flintoff moment, and there have been many in England shirts, was actually right here at this ground [The Oval], playing for Lancashire against Surrey, when he hit Alex Tudor several times over the boundary. He finished his innings on 135 not out from 111 balls, and it was then that we realised we had something special on our hands. It took him some time to prove it, but boy did he go on and prove it. And boy, will England miss him. The moment occurred in some half-forgotten quarter-final of the NatWest Trophy. But what isn¹t forgotten is the way Flintoff took on Tudor, who was then England's fast kid on the block. The previous summer he had actually smacked him for 34 in an over in a Championship game at Old Trafford. But this is the performance that sticks in the memory.
John Etheridge - The Sun cricket correspondent
I think my favourite Flintoff moment was when he scored 167 against West Indies at Edgbaston, and one of his many sixes sailed into the stands, straight into the hands of a spectator, who dropped it. Later, we discovered the spectator was Colin Flintoff, his dad, and Fred had great fun at his expense, saying: "He never could catch, he always told me he had a brilliant pair of hands, but that's the final proof, in front of the world, that my dad couldn't catch a cold." So that was great fun, and it summed him up as well as anything. It showed him hitting a six, it showed a bit of humour, and it showed him as a great family man. It encapsulates him perfectly.
Mike Selvey - The Guardian cricket correspondent
My favourite was him catching Steve Harmison¹s first ball of the 2006-07 Ashes, that infamous wide in Brisbane that went straight to second slip. He caught it so nonchalantly, it was almost as if he knew it was coming. Had he been somebody who watched the edge of the bat and not the ball it might have kneecapped him, or hit him straight in the bollocks, which would have been even funnier. Instead he just caught it and threw it away, as if it wasn't a big deal really. It was as if they had worked it out beforehand.

Andrew Miller is UK editor and Nagraj Gollapudi an assistant editor at Cricinfo