The Book of Fred by Andrew Flintoff

Author:Andrew Flintoff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blink Publishing

CHAPTER FIVE

FAILURE AND SUCCESS

‘Michael Jordan wouldn’t have been the sporting icon he is, if he had been a people pleaser.’

Hard Graft

Failing was such a strong, horrible emotion when I played cricket because winning meant everything to me. I’ve not experienced the same gut-wrenching, obsessive fury in any other walk of life than I did when I lost a game of cricket. I can be on telly, say the wrong thing or muck up a link and that’s nowhere near as severe an emotion as the one I felt in failure on the field.

I can accept failure up until a point, but I can’t accept not trying. All the times I did badly or we lost, I knew that if there was more that I could have done – if I could have practised something properly or prepared better – then that did me in. On the flipside, if we lost and I couldn’t have delivered any more, it was still really hard but in a way I could cope.

I guess because of my own personal experience, when I hear about kids who want to be professional cricketers, footballers, boxers or whatever, I often feel concerned. The percentage is so small for success that it means at some point most kids have to deal with the fact that they’re not good enough. It’s brutal. I’m so fortunate that I’ve never had that conversation in my career and I don’t know what it would have done to me if I had.

It does annoy me when people describe sports people’s success as ‘lucky’. For example, you’ll have Wayne Rooney, or whoever it may be – ‘He’s lucky, him. Look at him, he earns all this money per week.’ Well, nobody describes a doctor or a solicitor or an accountant as ‘lucky’ and they’ve only begun studying for that profession when they get to 17 or 18, starting formal training towards a degree. In sport, these lads and girls have started at six, seven or eight years old. An elite athlete might not be getting an academic qualification as such, it’s not the same as going to university, but if you count the hours that they’ve worked to get there, that’s more than good fortune. We could make the nature and nurture argument – nature can play a part in your genetics, if you have a particular physique – but after that, it’s down to them. So, I have some sympathy with professional footballers and the dog’s abuse they receive around the clock on social media and from the crowds in the stands.

When I’m working on talkSPORT, we will find ourselves discussing salaries that must seem utterly ridiculous to people. Whenever Paul Pogba, the Manchester United and France midfielder, gets a mention, it’s always with his £300,000-per-week price tag. I bet he didn’t get his ears pierced at Claire’s Accessories in Nottingham! It sounds daft, Pogba never gave himself that value, that’s what was decided for him, the market dictates that. He’s worth whatever a club is willing to pay for him, and that’s where we are at.

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