Flintoff's path from lad to a shining light for young men

Downing pints and bowling, that was 'Freddie'. But, as a new documentary shows, he was suffering behind the bravado. Jim White reflects on what really saved the national treasure

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Andrew Flintoff was once the ultimate lad. Watching the new documentary of his life (Flintoff on Disney+) and seeing the footage of him in his playing prime is to appreciate what a bloke he was. Physically immense, with a tongue sharp enough to scorch paint, he possessed a will so substantial he could shape events.

On a cricket field, he didn’t just make things happen, he made them go his way. With his bludgeon of a bat and catapult of a bowl, this was the man who had everything. Plus, he could drink. And how he did... according to Michael Vaughan, his captain in the triumphant English victory in the 2005 Ashes series, he had a party trick involving shoving five bottles of beer in his mouth simultaneously and downing the lot in one. As an encore, he could then neck three bottles of wine, each consumed in a single, whale-like swallow. Oh, and he was a lovely drunk. Funny, silly, jokey.

“A champion bloke,” as his mentor David Lloyd describes him.

That was how to do it. This was maleness personified.

But what is clear from this new film is that it was never the whole story about Flintoff. The “mega lad” was a persona, adopted to conceal the nervy, self-conscious boy within. When he first stepped into the Lancashire Cricket Club dressing room as a 16-year-old prodigy, he was terrified. He may have had talent to burn, but socially, he was adrift in the midst of seasoned professionals. Then, at 17, he discovered drinking. Or rather, his extraordinary capacity for the stuff. And with it came “Freddie”, a character born of the nickname bestowed on him by his new colleagues.

“I found this alter ego,” he explains in one of the many fascinating moments of this film. “I think there are two of us, but there may be more.”