Freddie Flintoff’s Field Of Dreams On Tour (BBC1)
One of the great mysteries of English sport is why cricket matches are called off at the first hint of rain. Regular flooding is an inevitable feature of British life – why invent a game where the rain stops playing?
Football and rugby don’t stop in the rain. Music festivals enjoy the rain and turn into mud baths. We stand in line in the rain, work in the rain, even picnic on the beach in the rain. What is so special about cricket?
In Kolkata, as Freddie Flintoff’s rookie team discovered at the Field Of Dreams On Tour, cricket doesn’t end anywhere… not even in the Monsoon. Anything less than a lightning strike means they’re playing.
India’s refusal to be intimidated by adversity breeds extraordinary resilience. The boys playing with a wooden string and a tennis ball in the street showed remarkable skill and joy of the game.
That fearless spirit shined through in other ways as well. In a school for orphans who would otherwise live in squalor and beg for scraps, the children showed a real eagerness to learn.
In Kolkata, as Freddie Flintoff’s rookie team discovered at the Field Of Dreams On Tour, cricket is not going anywhere.
In the show, Flintoff takes a group of youngsters on a cricket trip to India
They sat upright at their desks, paying close attention and writing furiously in their exercise books.
A girl named Jasmine, who was barely in her teens, announced her ambition to become a “famous criminal lawyer” in flawless English.
Yet their living quarters were incredibly basic – a row of painted wooden beds apparently made from shipping crates, and toothbrushes next to the sink.
The contrast between this and documentaries about British primary schools, such as C4’s Educating Yorkshire, could not be starker.
It’s a mystery why students with no advantages can succeed, while half a world away, some kids who are given everything they need to succeed are throwing it all away.
Some of Freddie’s sons also saw this discrepancy and began to wonder about it. Eli, the 18-year-old from Blackpool, who was the last to join the group, admitted to the former England star that he felt his education had been wasted.
“I’ve let an opportunity slip through my fingers and I don’t want this to happen again,” he vowed.
She said she hated herself for past mistakes, but Freddie guided her to a more positive attitude.
“I wouldn’t look back and berate myself for mistakes,” he said, “or think you have to fix them. Learn from them.
The cricket legend said the struggles of the kids in India make his injuries “pale into insignificance”.
A tearful Freddie Flintoff revealed how his team’s journey has put his own challenges into perspective
As a coach, he is not particularly eloquent or charismatic, but his honesty and lack of pretense impresses the boys who are willing to listen.
That’s the real purpose of this show because it’s not really about putting together world-beating cricketers.
They managed to defeat one team, which was hastily assembled from young men who danced and rapped in the park – but there was more than a doubt that the locals went easy on the visitors for overhospitality.
“I’m almost like a proud father,” Freddie announced. Take the win when you get one.
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