London [UK], April 24 (ANI): Former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff recalled how his car crash while filming for the TV series ‘Top Gear’ left him with a feeling later that he could have died, and the way he overcame his mental and physical setbacks to now land a job with England Lions as a coach for next generation of cricket in the country.
A documentary on Flintoff, titled ‘Flintoff’, coming to Disney+, touches on the life of one of England’s all-time greats in cricket, a massive part of which was the car accident in December 2022 which almost killed him. From 1998-2009, Flintoff represented England in 227 matches, scoring 7,315 runs at an average of 31.39, with eight centuries and 44 fifties and picking up 400 wickets at an average of 29.23. He was the hero of the Ashes 2005 series win for England against Australia, scoring 402 runs in five matches with a century and three fifties and picking up 24 wickets.
During the documentary, Flintoff described his instincts during the crash as being like a split-second decision a batter has to make while deciding on how to deal with a delivery coming to him. As his vehicle he was driving on Surrey’s Dunsfold Aerodrome overturned, Flintoff believed that if he turned his head in a certain way, he would break his neck or die, so he decided to fall face first. The accident left him with broken ribs and some serious injuries on his face, which required plenty of reconstruction and left him with noticeable scars.
“You get 0.4 seconds to make your mind up where the ball is going, what shot are you going to play, how are you going to move your feet. As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew if I get hit on the side, I am going to break my neck. If I get hit on the temple, I am dead. My best chance is go face down. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death,” said Flintoff during the documentary, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
It was his cricketing background that contributed to the difficulties he experienced while healing the psychological scars of the incident. As a player, he said, he was able to not just visualise performing a particular skill, but also feel like he was living it. In the documentary, he compares that experience to the intensity of nightmares and flashbacks he has about the crash, about which he remembers in vivid detail. The accident left him battling anxiety, which made him stay inside his house, except while going out for medical appointments.
“After the accident, I did not think I had it in me to get through,” Flintoff says.
“This sounds awful, part of me thinks I should have been killed. Part of me thinks I wish I had died. I did not want to kill myself. I would not mistake the two things. I was not wishing, I was thinking: that would have been so much easier. Now I try to take the attitude, the sun will come up tomorrow, and my kids will still give me a hug. I feel in a better place now,” he added.
Flintoff credits cricket, his time as head coach of England Lions since September last year and his family for helping him turn his life around after the accident.
“The common theme through my life is obviously my family – parents, brother, grandparents, Rachael (his wife), the kids – but then it seems almost everything comes back to cricket,” he was quoted telling former Rugby player and presenter Martin Bayfield in a Q&A session after the film’s premiere in London as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
“That is been the one constant thread through my life. It is probably the one thing, like Rachel again said, probably saved me. I have been welcomed back into that fold and I am loving it. I have got the opportunity now to coach. Who would have thought a 31-year-old me would be put in charge of kids, the next-best England players? And I absolutely love it.”
“So for everything that has happened, I think sport has been the one thing that has given me the coping mechanisms to get through pretty much anything, because some of the lows in cricket were so low, and you have to come back. It was resilience, it was passion, surrounded by people you love and people you trust. It was probably one of the most important things in my life after my family and my friends,” he concluded. (ANI)