Freddie Flintoff explains motivations behind Field of Dreams – and why year-long wait was “a blessing”

Returning for season 2, Flintoff has a plan to take the team to India to compete, but a life-changing accident puts the trip on hold for over a year.

Ahead of the series release, Flintoff discussed his motivations behind creating a cricket team like no other.

In conversation with Clyde Holcroft, Flintoff explained he "always wanted" to do something in cricket but was "never quite sure what it was".

"I've done a bit of commentary, which I don't particularly like," he admitted. "I've always had an ambition to coach but I'm not quite sure [about] my route to doing that or who I'd coach or, let's be honest, who would have me."

While noting he has been asked to do TV shows of a similar nature in sport, nothing quite stuck but then the idea of Field of Dreams came to him.

He continued: "[My] first thought was that we were going to try and find a cricketer, who would never get the opportunity to play, but could potentially [play] county cricket, or international cricket, which I still think could be done.

"Then when we started I realised it's far bigger than this and better than this... it's about giving everyone a chance and showing that I love cricket, and trying to pass that on to other people, as does Kyle [Hogg his former Lancashire teammate, who helps to coach the team]."

Flintoff admitted that filming of the first season did have "challenges", but upon reflection "the more time we spent with [the team], the more I got to like them."

He added: "And the more enthusiastic they were about everything, and they threw themselves into it and trying something for the first time that you're not sure you can do has a lot of pressure between your peers.

"Cricket has got a reputation of being elitist, and it's just pushing the lads to see what they could do and I think what we found through cricket and through sport and the lads being together, it helped other areas of their life."

It was seeing this passion and bond between the boys that spurred Flintoff on to want to take them to India, but things were put on hold for quite some time after he was involved in an accident.

In December 2022, Flintoff was involved in a crash at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey that left him with facial and rib injuries in a crash. Following the crash, the cricketer was airlifted to hospital and his injuries were described at the time as being non-life threatening.

As will be seen in the series, the trip to India is put on hold as it took time for Flintoff to recover and while the wait was over a year long, Flintoff didn't see it wholly as a bad thing.

"I think in some ways that was a blessing," he told Holcroft. Clarifying he didn't mean the accident, he put into perspective that "the lads were a year older" which was beneficial.

"And they were absolutely great... not all the time but most of the time!"

Freddie Flintoff's Field of Dreams airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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