Freddie Flintoff has faced a challenging few years, even being forced to quit a job after receiving what he felt was a deeply undervalued salary offer
Freddie Flintoff once quit a position after being given what he felt was a disrespectful salary proposal. The former England cricket star saw his life dramatically altered in 2022 when he suffered a near-fatal crash while filming Top Gear.
Since then, he has spent three years carefully piecing things back together and pushing toward full recovery. A key milestone arrived in 2023 when the Northern Superchargers, a team in The Hundred, hired him as head coach.
The job helped reconnect him with the sport that had shaped his working life. However, the positive momentum behind that appointment was soon undercut by an unfortunate development.
Flintoff resigned from the post last month after being offered “a quarter” of the pay given to other head coaches. The 47-year-old explained that the figure signalled the franchise did not strongly wish to retain him.
“I genuinely don’t do it for the money – although it’s nice – but I’m worth more than just over a quarter of the salary of other head coaches,” Flintoff said on the Beard Before Wicket podcast. “We have new owners and I spoke to them and said: ‘Yeah, fine, make us an offer.’
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“I wasn’t encouraged they wanted me anyway, and you want to feel valued. So I said that it’s not going to work for me and they weren’t going to move on it.”
Despite leaving the Superchargers, Flintoff has remained involved in cricket. In September 2024, he was appointed head coach of the England Lions – the men’s second team – a role he still occupies.
For him, these coaching opportunities have represented far more than sources of income. They have been crucial supports for someone who has openly spoken about the difficulties he faced after the crash. His wife, Rachael, has said that cricket had “saved” him during his darkest period.
The crash – which occurred at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022 – left him shaken emotionally and unable to work in the immediate period afterwards. He later received a reported £9million BBC settlement.
After three years away from television, Flintoff returned this month to host ITV’s darts-theme game show Bullseye. Even with more than a decade of presenting work – including Top Gear, A League of Their Own and BBC Radio – he admitted he felt “anxious” about returning to screens.
“Even going through the walkthrough [for Bullseye], looking on the screen and seeing myself… I’m just trying to find my feet again,” he said in ‘Flintoff’, the Disney+ documentary released earlier this year.
The series, a follow-up to last year’s Christmas special, maintains the classic structure of the much-loved 1980s program fronted by Jim Bowen. It features professional darts players such as reigning world champion Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting.
