Freddie Flintoff says he would not change his comprehensive education — even though he has his own kids educated privately.
The former England cricketer, 44, told how he turned down many offers of scholarships to fee-paying schools as a teen.
He said: “I didn’t want to be the poor kid at a posh school.
“It was the best decision I ever made. It was such a good grounding, I wouldn’t swap it.”
Freddie said the jibes he faced from schoolmates at Ribbleton Hall High in Preston, Lancs, for playing cricket rather than football helped him deal with tricky international opponents on the pitch years later.
The dad-of-four was speaking as he launched BBC1 documentary Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams.
He returned to Preston to make the show in which he put together a cricket team of working-class kids like himself.
But he soon found they had no interest in the sport and saw it as posh and boring. When one youngsters Googled Freddie and read out that he is an international cricketer, another said: “Never heard of him.”
Freddie admits the sport is elitist, with more than half of England’s cricket team educated privately. And he acknowledges kids who play are privileged or fortunate.
He said: “I won the lottery of life with my family. We didn’t have much, but for love and support, we couldn’t have had more.”
Making the series re-defined winning for him. He said: “I’ve seen cricket from one angle, the desire to be the best, to win at all costs. But with this I might adjust what a win is. Having the confidence to play, that’s the win.”
Ahead of the series, Freddie also said that the bullying he suffered for playing cricket felt worse than what Billy Elliot went through for taking up ballet.
Comparing himself with fictional working class lad Billy who has to battle to follow his dream, Freddie said: “At both the schools I went to, cricket was just not on the radar.
“I got so much stick for playing cricket, bullied even, it was almost like Billy Elliot – except he had it easier being a ballet dancer.”
He took up a TV boxing challenge in 2012 to tackle his frustration at having been bullied but not responding.
He said previously: “I had a very rough time at school. I wanted to play cricket and I frequently got knocked around because of it.
“I wanted to retaliate but I couldn’t make myself.
“So now I want to put that side of my life to bed a little bit.”
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams is on BBC1 at 8pm on Tuesday.
