England cricket legend Freddie Flintoff has opened up on how the young men who starred in his ‘Field of Dreams’ TV show helped him recover from his life-changing car accident. Flintoff, 47, was airlifted to hospital in December 2022 after crashing a three-wheeled sports car at 130mph while filming for BBC programme Top Gear.
The ex-England all-rounder suffered serious injuries to his face and ribs, the scars of which can still be seen today. Ahead of a new documentary releasing this week, Flintoff has been opening up on his difficult recovery.
‘Crippling anxiety’ brought on by flashbacks and nightmares left him unable to leave the house for ‘probably six or eight months’ apart from medical appointments. But his love for cricket and inspiring the next generation helped bring him out of the abyss.
His show, Field of Dreams, saw Flintoff introduce a group of young men from Preston to the sport in order to help transform their lives. For the second series, the cricketer-turned-TV star was planing to go to India, only for the accident to interrupt filming.
“I’d told them we were going to India and then it didn’t happen, but I remember ten days after the accident committing to taking them,” Flintoff told former England captain Mike Atherton for the Times. “I was still on morphine and probably thought I could do anything; it might have been unrealistic but it gave me a focus to get better.
“I didn’t want to be another person to let them down. When we went [to India in March 2024], I still wasn’t sure whether I was doing the right thing for myself. The first bit of filming we did was on one of the maidans and I couldn’t do it, I was struggling. I was on my own and couldn’t deliver a piece to camera.
“After that, I made sure when I was filming I was around the boys all the time and that really helped. It was a great lesson: it wasn’t about me, but I was getting a lot from it. These kids were helping me as much as I was helping them.”
The 2005 Ashes-winning hero added: “From a coaching point of view, that programme stood me in such good stead. I had the idea and the original plan was that there must be untapped talent around Lancashire or Preston, and wouldn’t it be nice if we could find a cricketer? But it became more than that – cricket became a vehicle for giving these kids a chance.
“Some of them had specific needs: autism, ADHD, got in trouble at school, had been given up on, really. What I found is that once you engage with them, build that trust and those relationships, you could start to help them.
“The hard part was setting the boundaries to begin with. You want to give them enough room; you want to be their mate to some degree but you need some sort of authority as well. The more I did it, the more I loved it.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
