Released in 2006, for me this book marked a total change in cricket biographies and not one I particularly like.

In the past at the end of a distinguished career and following a few years to really think about their achievements and place in the game, great players released Autobiographies, this along with about 6 other books was released after Englands first ashes victory for a number of years in 2005, despite the odd controversial comment about players still in the game, Flintoff hasn´t had enough of a life to justify an autobiography yet, we miss his later problems with injury, further ashes failures and the pedalo incident in this book, I also feel it would be interesting now to hear his views when he isn´t quite as close to the situation or the players, what will he do with his future, how will life without playing cricket affect him.

Unfortunately, despite being a nice guy and a good cricketer, this reads like a boys own adventure rather than a frank, intelligent read similar to Shane Warne´s outstanding Autobiography.

We learn that Flintoff was nicknamed Freddie, that he has always had problems with his size, that his injuries often relate to his bulk and size and that he has a constant fight with injuries and has celebrity mates in Ricky Hatton, David Beckham etc.

The best bits are when he concentrates on talking about his cricket, as Flintoff is clearly a smart cookie and a player with the potential to be a coach, but this dwells too much on the facile and needless elements of his career.

I like the guy but I feel this follows the footballer stereotype of writing about a life before it has really matured, with Botham, Warne, Waugh etc we get the chance to understand what life away from Cricket means to them, similar with Atherton and Hussain but this book is too soon and feels dated because of it, lost in the mid 2000´s, a further book would now be pointless as Flintoff hasn´t really moved on from the Ashes win apart from being a team captain on some needless Sky One quiz.

The book is available in paperback for 6.69 on Amazon and a lot less on Marketplace, it is needlessly 336 pages long, over half of this is padding and whilst it is good to know what Flintoff thinks of the Indian captain or Murali Muralitharan or Shane Warne, or Pietersen, it would be more interesting to hear those views now from an utterly new perspective.

This isn´t a good book and has opened the door for ridiculous autobiographies like the 22 year old Alistair Cook´s and marked a sad day in cricket journalism for me.