Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff is regarded as one of the best all-rounders to have played the game. He was a talisman and a livewire in the field who single-handedly won his team many matches.
Apart from being an entertainer and a valuable asset for the English cricket team, Flintoff was also good at sledging. Who can forget his famous sledging incident with West Indies’ Tino Best at Lord’s in 2004. Now, the Lancashire player has revealed another funny sledging incident, but this time it was with Pakistan’s speedster Shoaib Akhtar.
While facing Akhtar in 2005, Flintoff was annoyed by Akhtar’s comments as the pacer kept calling him fat.
In response, ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, hit back at Akhtar, stating the then fastest bowler looked like a Tarzan, but he bowled like Jane. However, Fintoff’s jibe didn’t go well as Akhtar shattered his defences and sent the off stump for a walk.
“He kept calling me fat, and I was like I’m not having this. So, as I walked out, I told Shoaib– you look like Tarzan but you bowl like Jane. Which haunted me straightaway as, on the first or second ball, my off-stump was cartwheeling backwards & as I walked off he went OOHHH,” Flintoff said while talking with talkSPORT.
Here is the conversation:
😡 “Akhtar kept calling me fat!”
😳 “As I walked out I said ‘Shoaib, you look like Tarzan but bowl like Jane’”
😫 “1st or 2nd ball my off stump was cartwheeling backwards & as I walked off he went ‘OOHHH!’”
Brilliant story from @Flintoff11 about facing @Shoaib100mph in 2005 🤣 pic.twitter.com/6gXVyj2Xfa
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) April 8, 2020
Flintoff played 79 Tests, 141 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), and 7 T20I games, in which he amassed 3845, 3394 and 76 runs, respectively. He also grabbed 226 wickets in the longest format, and 154 scalps in the white-ball cricket.
